House Speaker Catherine Hanaway has appointed an interim committee to study implementing early voting in Missouri.Hanaway’s announcement came a day after a judge threw out a lawsuit that attempted to force the Secretary of State to implement early voting. She says costs and timing kept lawmakers from moving on the issue the past two years. Hanaway points out local election authorities have been busy adjusting to provisions in federal election reform and didn’t need another duty piled on top of that. The judge ruled current law is not clear, noting that a clear intent to authorize early voting appeared to change into a notion to study the idea during the 2002 legislative session.
