On Thursday, March 25, Missouri lawmakers in the House approved several changes to state election laws. Although the 2020 elections were ‘clean’ per Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, our legislators are trying to head off future problems [1]. This bill was passed almost unanimously down party lines. Its aim is to ensure each legal vote gets counted, nothing more and nothing less. Here’s a breakdown of the law.
Photo ID
The more notable change in elections is a photo id. This ensures that one person gets one vote. His name must match the id. Election judges will not accept out-of-state ids. Those who cannot afford an id may obtain one through several means. The Missouri Department of Revenue provides one nondriver license at no charge to Missourians [2]. The Missouri Secretary of State will also help you obtain a valid id.
Other Changes
The General Assembly also agreed that absentee ballots do not get counted until election day. Changes to a presidential election cannot take place within six months of the election.
Details
Representative Dan Shaul, from Imperial, sponsored the bill. It is HB334. The House has a similar bill and the Senate has two bills that are all similar.
The legislators are working through absentee ballots along with the bill.
Notes:
- ^https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/missouri-republicans-resurrect-push-for-voter-id-law/article_e602897c-6291-57ef-a0e5-b5bc912595f5.html (go back ↩)
- ^https://www.sos.mo.gov/showit2vote (go back ↩)
