Registration cards are public records

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Kara Clark said she provided the copy the 1972 voter registration card used to certify Lawrence McBryde's 2001 easement signature. Voter registrations are public record, she said, and she was complying with the state's Sunshine Law, which requires that copies of public documents must be provided within three days of a request.

"I've made copies for other people before on different things," she said. "If we give it to anyone other than the individual, we redact their Social Security number."

Clark said she was unaware the copy was being used for notarization purposes. She said Robb McClary came into her office looking for McBryde's card on a busy day just before the April 8 election.

"I had no idea what he was doing. The only thing he told me was that he was using it to verify a signature," she said.

Sherri Lomedico, a voter registration deputy for the county, wondered why such an old document was used.

"My signature's not the same as it was in 1972," she said.

Asked how often the registration cards are used to verify documents being notarized, Lomedico said, "Probably never. We do, in our office for absentee ballots, and we have to check whenever there are petitions. We have to check their signature with the voter's registration card."

She said registration cards are kept on file as long as a voter is "active, still here and still alive."