POPLAR BLUFF WOMAN SHOT IN HAND

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- A 32-year-old Poplar Bluff woman was shot in the hand Wednesday morning on a city street corner.

Police said the woman was walking home when she noticed three men standing on the corner.

The woman told police she argued with the three and one of the men pulled a gun from his jacket and shot in the air.

She said he then pointed the gun at her and shot twice.

One of the bullets struck her in the hand. The men then fled.

The victim was taken to Three Rivers Health Care South Campus for treatment.

OFFICIALS CALL SAMPLE BALLOT MEASURE TOO COSTLY

OFFICIALS CALL SAMPLE BALLOT MEASURE TOO COSTLYHeadline:

Election officials in Southeast Missouri say it would be too costly to mail sample ballots to voters in advance of elections as a state lawmaker has proposed.

Sample ballots currently are published in newspapers, a practice favored by local election officials for major elections.

Sample ballots can be mailed for elections in jurisdictions involving fewer than 500 registered voters.

But a provision in an elections bill in the Missouri House would give county clerks the option of mailing sample ballots for any election, but wouldn't require them to do so. Local election officials also could mail out sample ballots and publish them in newspapers.

But mailing sample ballots would be expensive in Cape Girardeau and surrounding counties even with bulk postal rates.

Cape Girardeau County has 48,223 registered voters. At a mailing charge of 25 cents per ballot, it would cost more than $12,000 to mail sample ballots to every voter for a single countywide election.

Five elections in 2000

There often are several elections in a single year. Last year, there were five elections in Cape Girardeau County. The state paid the March primary election costs, but the county had to foot the bill for the other four elections.

If sample ballots had been mailed to voters in all four elections, the county would have been saddled with more than $36,000 in mailing expenses alone for three countywide elections and a special election in Delta, Mo.

The county would have additional costs for envelopes and printing of the ballots.

"It sounds kind of expensive," said Cape Girardeau County elections supervisor Patty Schlosser.

Cape Girardeau County spent $13,149 to publish sample ballots and polling information in the Southeast Missourian and Cash-Book Journal newspapers for three elections last year. That doesn't include the cost of the presidential primary.

The county saved money in a June election by mailing out sample ballots.

The county clerk's office mailed a sample ballot to 303 voters in Delta at a cost of $147, which included the cost of printing the sample ballots, as well as the cost of envelopes and postage.

Scott County Clerk Rita Milam said it would be less expensive to publish the sample ballots in newspapers for any major election.

"I think it would be a lot higher," Milam said of mailing sample ballots. Scott County has more than 26,000 registered voters.

Bill to give access

Rep. Beth Long, R-Lebanon, added the sample-ballot provision to the election bill. Long, a former Laclede County clerk, is a member of the House Elections Committee.

The bill won committee approval, but has yet to be put on the House calendar for debate.

Long said, "The public should have free access to election information. Right now you have a large number of people who may not subscribe to the paper in their area. If you don't subscribe, you don't have access to the information. My concern is that information that makes for a better informed voting public gets into the voters' hands."

Long said in many areas registered voters outnumber newspaper subscribers.

The Missouri Press Association opposes the provision. Sample ballots historically have been published in newspapers and voters know that, said Doug Crews, executive director of the Missouri Press Association.

Crews said one problem with mailed ballots is that they may not reach all registered voters because of incorrect addresses.

The bill is HB247.