A state lawmaker’s highly critical of a new ranking which places Missouri in the top 10 for election management.
Shamed Dogan
Secretary of State Jason Kander announced this week the state had climbed from 13th-to-8th place in the Pew Elections Performance Index.
The state was given high marks in five categories, including online voter registration and low rates of voter registration and ballot rejections.
But Representative Shamed Dogan of Ballwin thinks the index is flawed because it fails to consider elections where large numbers of people weren’t allowed to vote. “There’s nothing in this index that Pew put together that seems to take into account actual voter disenfranchisement, which is kind of shocking” said Dogan. “And I think it kind of renders all of these other criteria they’re basing their judgments on pretty irrelevant.”
In April, 60 precincts in St. Louis County were issued incorrect or too few ballot for an election. A similar problem occurred in 2014, the year the index is based on. Dogan contends Secretary Kander’s not taking responsibility for the problem. “He takes credit for all the good things that happen, and he takes none of the blame when there are screw-ups.”
Dogan further says there are significant problems in the Secretary of State’s office under Kander’s watch. “Their registration data base has lots of flaws, and just the lack of communications from his office. Local election authorities on both sides of the isle testified to our election task force that that was the case. Based on his performance as Secretary of State, I don’t think it’s appropriate for him to be seeking higher office.”
Kander’s the Democratic nominee in this fall’s U.S. Senate race.
Dogan is a Republican state Representative representing the 98th District east of St. Louis.  He campaigned with Kander’s opponent, incumbent Republican Senator Roy Blunt Thursday.
A spokesperson for the Kander campaign called Dogan’s criticism of Kander’s actions as Secretary of State a “baseless political attack”.
