Vote 'no' on Constitutional Amendment 6

Vote 'no' on Constitutional Amendment 6

As the chief elections official of our state, I work to make sure only eligible voters vote and that every eligible voter is able to vote securely. I'm opposing Constitutional Amendment 6 and urging you to vote "no" on Tuesday, because Constitutional Amendment 6 is confusing and misleading.

If Amendment 6 passes, Missouri voters who want to vote would have three days when they could vote, then two days when they couldn't, then three days when they could, then five days when they couldn't, then one final day -- Election Day -- when they could vote. That timeline simply doesn't make sense and will lead to confusion among voters, political campaigns and local election authorities, while costing taxpayers up to $2 million.

Don't get me wrong, I'm an outspoken supporter of early voting. I think eligible Missourians deserve the option to vote at their convenience in a secure way. But I just can't support changing the constitution in a way that will require us to go back and immediately fix it.

In addition to the amendment's confusing timeline, it would change our state's constitution to treat people who vote absentee and people who vote early very differently. For example, if someone were going on vacation on Election Day, they could vote absentee the Saturday before the election. But if someone had to work nine or 10 hours on Election Day, they wouldn't be given the same opportunity.

Because the amendment was passed so hastily at the end of the legislative session, it unfortunately contained some language errors along with policy problems. For absentee voting, the law is very clear that ballots must be received by Election Day. But for amendment 6, the legislature forgot to specify whether the deadline for mailing in early ballots was a "received by" date or a "postmarked" date. This could result in a swing of up to three days on whether or not a ballot would count. Because it is unclear, local election authorities could interpret the amendment's intent in different ways, leading to different rules in different counties. You shouldn't get more or less time to vote based on where in Missouri you live.

My office and local election authorities across the state work together to make our elections as secure and fair as possible, but this constitutional amendment could actually lead to less security. It could open the door for someone to exploit the different deadlines and procedures for absentee voting, early voting and Election Day in an attempt to vote multiple times in the same election. I will never support a proposal that makes it easier to cheat in elections, which is one of the many reasons I oppose this amendment.

This constitutional amendment shows that the early voting debate has become too politicized in Jefferson City, so we all need to take a step back and focus on you, the voters. Next session, after what I hope will be the defeat of this constitutional amendment, I will push for no-excuse absentee voting instead of the early voting bill I've proposed the past two years.

While the political parties can't currently agree on the best way to implement early voting, nearly everyone agrees that no excuse absentee voting is a cheaper alternative that would still benefit Missouri voters. And that's what it's all about: making voting easier and more accessible for eligible Missourians.

Jason Kander is the secretary of state for the state of Missouri.