Changes to upcoming election season

I don't know about you, but I feel like the election cycle seems to start earlier and earlier. We are now a little more than a year away from another general election day that will include presidential, gubernatorial and four statewide races, as well as local races for many of our state districts and local communities.

While the debates, news stories and election day itself on that first Tuesday in November will feel familiar for those of us who have participated and observed before, one element of the election process in Missouri will be different in 2024.

During the 2022 legislative session, the General Assembly passed, and the governor then signed into law, House Bill 1878. The bill, among other provisions relating to elections in Missouri, removes the statute that establishes state-run presidential preference primary elections. With that change to our election laws, each party (Republican and Democrat) will hold caucuses across the state at which its members can vote to select which nominee for president they want to be on the ballot in the general election.

Being able to select our representatives in government is a vital part of the democratic process. I honestly didn't care for this change to our election laws. I did, however, understand why it was being offered. Missouri's laws and processes around the presidential preference primary didn't really reflect that fundamental right. From my view, they were actually a little bit deceptive.

Let me explain.

Missouri's presidential primaries, previously held in March of each presidential election year, did not actually carry voters' voices to November. While the primary ballots could be counted and reported, just like an election, it did not lock in the choice of a presidential candidate by that popular vote. The party actually had the power to select another candidate, regardless of the results of the primary election. Most of the time those choices are the same, but the problem resides in the fact that the primary elections, costing taxpayers approximately $7 million, were not binding. In my opinion, these primaries were really just a very expensive news story paid for by the people of Missouri and did not ensure that their choice would stand in terms of whom those delegates' would actually choose once they got to the conventions.

Each state has a certain number of delegates that are sent to the parties' national conventions, determined by its convention rules. Missouri Republicans will send delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention and Missouri Democrats will send delegates to the Democratic National Convention. These delegates cast votes at the convention to decide which candidate will represent the party in the general election. The delegates are not required to stick with any candidate (such as one chosen in a primary); we entrust them to do the will of the people who elected them.

So what does this mean for you, the voters, as we head into the 2024 elections? For statewide and local primaries, nothing will change. You will still head to your polling places in August, receive a ballot based on your party affiliation and choose your preferred candidates to be included in the general election in November. If you want to participate in the process to assign delegates for presidential candidates, I encourage you to reach out to your local party affiliates and find out when and where caucuses will be held and how delegates and candidates will be selected, and then get involved.

All of that being said, come November 2024, you absolutely will get to choose — on your ballot — and cast your vote for the next president of the United States!

Holly Thompson Rehder is the state senator for District 27 in the Missouri General Assembly.