Missouri’s top elections official has assessed what went right and what went wrong with last November’s election.
Fifty-three percent of Missouri’s registered voters cast ballots last November, the highest mid-term turnout since 19-94. The election was the first to use a lot of new equipments, the first election in which a statewide voter registration was in place.
Secretary of State Robin Carnahan says some themes emerged in the post-election assessments.
She says some people waited two or three hours to vote, a situation she says is unacceptable and can be cured by early voting, adequate numbers of ballots, better training of pollworkers and reinstatement of straight-ticket voting.
She says the election proved the voter photo-ID law, thrown out by the courts weeks before the election, was not needed. "Of all the reports and complaints we heard around the state, not a single one mentioned voter impersonation," she says.
It was the first election that people soliciting voter registrations had to sign up with her office. Carnahan says that law has paid off with the conviction of one person, so far, for falsely filing voter registrations.
Her report is available on the Secretary of State’s website (www.sos.mo.gov/elections/votersfirst).
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