VOTERS GETTING NEW ID CARDS

JACKSON -- The Cape Girardeau County clerk's office plans to send out new ID cards to registered voters in the next few weeks in conjunction with canvassing the voter rolls.

County Clerk Rodney Miller said about 41,000 yellow cards will be mailed. People should replace their old cards with the new ones.

The cards help ensure that voters are properly registered and cast their ballots at the correct polling places, he said.

The county has about 46,000 registered voters on the rolls, but about 5,000 of the names have inaccurate addresses or in other ways are considered inactive.

Miller said the county legally has to keep those names on the rolls unless they haven't voted in two consecutive federal elections. That covers a period of four years.

After that, the names can be removed from the voter rolls, Miller said.

He said county residents should be on the lookout for the yellow voter cards, which list their addresses and the precinct in which they are registered to vote.

Registered voters who don't receive new ID cards by the end of the month should contact the county clerk's offices in Cape Girardeau or Jackson, Miller said.

Voters who have moved can register their new addresses in person or by mail.

Miller said the post office routinely returns some of the ID cards because of incorrect addresses. "It's hard telling how many we will get back," he said.

Voters have until Wednesday to register to vote for the Feb. 8 sewer bond issue election in Cape Girardeau. Feb. 9 is the registration deadline for those seeking to vote in the March 7 presidential primary. March 8 is the deadline for registering to vote for the April election, Miller said.

People can register to vote at the county clerk's offices in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, at the Riverside Regional Library in Jackson and the Cape Girardeau Public Library, and at the license bureaus in the two cities. Cape Girardeau Central High School students can register to vote at the high school.