Rep. Donna Baringer implored Gov. Mike Parson to extend mail-in and absentee voting options through the spring municipal elections amid rising COVID-19 rates.
“We had to make exceptions to the usual way citizens of this state voted to ensure their health and safety,” Baringer said Thursday. “Unfortunately, this pandemic will clearly extend into spring’s municipal elections. We have fewer than 50 days from the start of absentee voting for several important elections, and the last thing we want to do is turn a polling place into a superspreader event or depress turnout. I’m asking the governor to extend these provisions that saved lives, preserved the integrity of the vote, and safeguarded our citizens’ constitutional right to the franchise.”
Mail-in voting was authorized for the first time in Missouri for the 2020 elections in response to the pandemic. Absentee voting was also expanded to allow high-risk individuals to opt for absentee ballots without the need to have them notarized.
The current law only covers the 2020 elections.
The St. Louis Democrat asked Parson to draft and enforce an executive order extending no-excuse absentee and mail-in voting through the municipal elections, saying the extension of the state of emergency through the end of March demonstrated the expectation that the pandemic would last through the spring. She also noted it was difficult to say when a vaccine might be widespread enough to improve the situation.
Baringer said her area saw a voter turnout of 81 percent during the general election, and similarly high rates were reported across Missouri and the country.
“We witnessed in the primary and general that these measures kept people going to the polls to exercise their constitutional right to the franchise,” she said. “We need a continuation of that success because we’re still living through this pandemic.”
More than 60,100 mail-in ballots were requested this year, and more than 816,000 Missouri voters solicited an absentee ballot. Some local election authorities reported issues with poll workers, absentee ballot solicitations, and processing mail-in ballots prior to Election Day.
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft recently praised the state’s handling of Election Day, telling The Missouri Times “the rest of the country could learn from how the people of Missouri did their elections.”
Lawmakers have already proposed legislative measures to extend the measure. Sen. Jill Schupp pre-filed legislation to allow for no-excuse absentee voting in upcoming elections, as did Incoming Sen. Elaine Gannon.
