ELECTION WOES, NOT LAWS, NEED STUDY

Matt Blunt wasted little time after becoming secretary of state in suggesting that Missouri adopt a single voting system for use in all Missouri counties.

Blunt used the tallying chaos in the Florida presidential election as a springboard to look into Missouri's voting procedures. He said a standardized system of voting in the state could prevent the kinds of problems Florida experienced. But he also said such a system could be as many as three years down the road and could cost $100 million to implement.

The secretary of state offered 26 statutory revisions and 11 administrative actions that he thinks would improve Missouri's election laws. He indicated that most of the suggestions were culled from meetings of a bipartisan elections commission made up of county clerks that he appointed.

Perry County's clerk, Randy Taylor, was Southeast Missouri's representative on that elections commission. Taylor said the secretary of state ignored the commission's recommendation against a single voting system statewide. Taylor said the clerks instead urged that the state continue to leave it up to local election authorities to select the voting systems they want. And the clerks on Blunt's commission wondered how the state could afford a statewide voting system and how much it would cost taxpayers to implement it.

That sentiment was likewise expressed by Cape Girardeau County's clerk, Rodney Miller, who said he doesn't think the state can afford a statewide system. He worries that county governments and local taxpayers would be saddled with the cost of implementing the $100 million system and any other changes the secretary of state might come up with.

While making his recommendations, Blunt also said he wants Congress to move the observance of Veterans Day to coincide with the November general election and, in effect, turn Election Day into a national holiday. That also wasn't recommended by Blunt's elections commission. And Blunt recommended that Missourians be allowed to vote for 11 days in advance of primary and general elections.

In all, the secretary of state estimated the cost of all of the changes, excluding the $100 million statewide voting system, to be $6 million.

Missouri elections for the most part go pretty smoothly election year after election year because of the quality of local election officials across the state. That, however, wasn't the situation last November in St. Louis, when a circuit judge ordered polls in that city to remain open past the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time because of long lines.

It is those kinds of matters -- not a complete overhaul of Missouri's election system -- that Blunt really needs to address.