Key legislators back off voting changes

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Some key legislators are backing away from proposals to allow early voting, looking simply to tweak -- not overhaul -- Missouri's election laws.

The acknowledgments came as an interim House committee began hearings Monday on revisions to state election laws. A similar Senate committee is to begin work next Monday.

Election laws were put under the national spotlight in last year's presidential election, when Florida's troubles left the outcome in doubt until a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

After a study last January, Missouri Secretary of State Matt Blunt proposed 26 election law changes, including a single statewide voting system and the ability to vote for 11 days in advance of primary and general elections.

Missourians must vote on Election Day itself unless they cast absentee ballots.

Legislation incorporating early voting and some of Blunt's other proposals died during the session that ended in May after some lawmakers and county clerks raised concerns about the costs.

State Rep. Jim Seigfreid, who sponsored the legislation, said early voting deserves studying but isn't likely to be an issue for the 2002 session.

"It was pretty controversial last year, and we would really like to get something that will pass," said Seigfreid, D-Marshall, chairman of the regular and interim House election committees.

State Sen. Anita Yeckel, the Senate sponsor of the elections legislation, said early voting could be especially useful to farmers and rural Missourians. But she said the costs are a deterrent.

Next year's legislation may start off with an early voting provision but might not include it by the end, she said.

"I'm not crazy about it myself," said Yeckel, R-St. Louis, chairwoman of the regular and interim Senate elections committees.

Blunt to push plan

Despite some legislative hesitancy, Secretary of State Matt Blunt plans to push again for an early voting law when the Legislature resumes work in January.

"If they give early voting an honest look, we feel very strongly that they will see it as a benefit and not a detriment to increasing voter participation," said Blunt spokesman Spence Jackson.

House Speaker Jim Kreider, D-Nixa, opposed election changes during this past session, partly because legislative researchers estimated the bill could cost the state more than $5 million annually.

Early voting was a priority in that bill. But next year, Seigfreid said he will present a trimmed down proposal.

"We don't want to do anything major," Seigfreid said. "If we can do a few little things to kind of tweak the system to help it, that's what we would like to do."

After this year's legislative failure, Blunt announced in August that he would make some election changes through administrative rules.

The new rules will establish uniform standards for counting votes on Missouri's three types of ballots.

On punch card ballots, votes will be counted if at least two of the corners of a square chad are detached. On optically scanned and paper ballots, votes will be counted if the oval or box is marked or if there is a mark or circle around the candidate's name.

The rules also place a sequential code on postcard applications for voter registrations -- an attempt to track registrations that may be contested.

The public comment period on the rules expires Wednesday and the rules are expected to be in place by April's local elections. So far, few people have commented on the rules, said Betsy Byers, the Democratic director of elections in the secretary of state's office.