Less than half of Missouri’s registered voters went to the polls last month.. But for voters who had to make some special efforts, the turnout was about double the average. 

The November election was the first in which Missourians overseas could get their absentee ballots off the internet.  The Secretary of State’s office thinks that cut two or three weeks off the process, which is one reason 97 percent of the overseas allots got back in to be counted.   That’s about ten percentage points better than the 2008 general election. 

Secretary of State spokesman Laura Egerdal says some voters not only got their ballots from the internet, they voted and sent them back on the internet. Those were military voters in dangerous areas. Egerdal says feedback from county election officials indicates no problems with the system.

Although the percent of return was up, the total vote from overseas Missourians was well behind the 2008 total, when 13-thousand-785 votes were cast by people out of the country.  This year’s overseas vote was less than 32-hundred. Egerdal says turnout is usually down for off-year elections.  And she says fewer Missourians, especially soldiers, were overseas this year.

 Egerdl and Priddy talk votes 6:32 mp3