Editorial - Ballot changes coming to Missouri

The process that seemed to baffle certain Florida voters in 2000 is the way most of Missourians vote.

It's punch-card voting, the process of sliding a ballot into a clearly marked slot, pricking it as many times as necessary with a small tool and then slipping it into a big box to be taken to county clerks' headquarters to be counted.

In the 2000 presidential election in Florida, we learned a whole new vocabulary, thanks to voters who seemed much less familiar with the process. There were "dimpled chads" where they didn't sufficiently punch the ballot. There were "hanging chads" where they punched the ballot through - but apparently not hard enough - and then didn't check it before turning it in.

A new federal law will eliminate punch-card voting and encourage clerks to have new voting systems in place by 2004.

The estimated cost is $600,000 to $1 million on the touch-screen systems Missouri Secretary of State Matt Blunt is advocating.

While that gets sorted out, at least Missouri voters can have confidence in the system currently in place.

The Nov. 5 elections couldn't have been executed more smoothly in an imperfect world thanks to checks and rechecks of equipment and the inspired idea of provisional balloting.

Under Missouri's new election law, those who showed up at polling places and couldn't be identified as registered voters were allowed to cast provisional ballots on statewide races. They were sealed and set aside to be counted separately if they could be proven valid later.

In all, 3,505 voters cast provisional ballots statewide on Nov. 5. And none of the statewide races were so close that 3,505 ballots would have changed the outcome anyway.

Missouri's elections officials deserve our applause for conducting such a fair and efficient election. No doubt the transition to new equipment, needed or not, will likewise proceed in a smooth fashion.