To listen to the Show Me Today interview with Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, click below.
Missouri’s August 2 primary election is right around the corner and in-person absentee voting has begun. You can vote absentee at your local election authority until 5 p.m. on August 1.
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (file photo courtesy of the Secretary of State’s office)
To vote absentee, you must be absent from your election authority jurisdiction on Election Day; confined due to illness or physical disability; taking care of someone who is confined due to illness or physical disability; have religious reasons; an election worker or in jail, or be a domestic violence victim participating in Missouri’s address confidentiality program.
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft explains some of the other requirements to vote absentee.
“For mailing it in, you’ll need to have the ballot envelope notarized so that there’s some proof that the individual that was supposed to vote the ballot did vote it. Then you just send it back in. If you want to vote absentee in-person, just go to your election authority’s office, check the hours. Easiest if you have your government issued photo ID, like a driver’s license, but not required,” he said.
The last day to request a mail-in absentee ballot for Missouri’s August primary election is July 20. Ashcroft strongly encourages voters to cast an absentee ballot in-person, rather than through the mail.
“That way you’re not worried about the Postal Service. We have seen times where it could take you two weeks to get the ballot and two weeks to send it back through the mail. If it were to take four weeks, now your ballot would not be counted,” said Ashcroft.
Missouri’s local election authorities have been hard at work prepping for the August primary election. The Missouri Legislature passed a Congressional redistricting plan at the last minute this year, causing election offices to scramble to get what they need in place for the primary. Ashcroft said it’s been a big lift for them.
“They’ve done a great job with that,” he said. “Our office has facilitated that. We’ve helped some of the clerks that were having a more difficult time. It has been done. It was done well but it was due to the hard work of our local election authorities and I’m glad we’re not going to go through that again anytime soon.”
Ashcroft said he has not had reports of candidates ending up on the wrong ballot, but he said they are on the lookout.
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