This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander is bringing up the GOP leadership’s past support for early voting as he steps up his effort to persuade Republican legislative leaders – and particularly House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka – to consider the idea this season.
Kander, a Democrat, made public a letter that he sent Tuesday to Jones “urging him to support early voting” and refer HB 848, sponsored by state Rep. Myron Neth, R-Liberty, to the House Elections Committee.
So far, Jones has been cool to the idea, although more than 30 states now have some form of early voting. Missouri allows early absentee voting but would-be voters are supposed to comply with the state's restrictions regarding the practice.
In his letter, Kander cites the supportive view of his recent Early Voting Commission. Kander also notes that former Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, had pressed for early voting issue when he was secretary of state from 2001-2005.
Blunt even issued a report in favor of the idea, as part of his effort to clamp down on what he viewed as fraudulent voting practices, such as judges giving Election Day approval to individuals to vote, even though some of them apparently weren’t registered.
But not mentioned by Kander is that Blunt’s ardor for early voting cooled while he was governor – from 2005-2009 -- in part in the wake of the apparent state GOP pressure to back off. Blunt never pressed the point while he was governor.
The private perception of some Republican leaders at the time – which still appears the case -- was that their party was doing fine under the current system of absentee voting, even though many Missouri absentee voters are believed to lie about their reasons to comply with the state’s restrictions.
In fact, Blunt – while secretary state and running for governor in 2004 – touched off controversy in the fall campaign because he had sent out a request to all county clerks and election officials that they regularly file with the state lists of absentee voters.
The perception among some Democrats was that Blunt, while secretary of state, was trying to help his party keep tabs on absentee voters -- either to find out which known Republicans already had voted or possibly to prosecute people suspected of lying about their reasons for voting absentee.
That fracas came in the midst of a hot contest for secretary of state between then-House Speaker Catherine Hanaway, R-Warson Woods, and Democrat Robin Carnahan.
Both candidates decried Blunt’s action and said absentee-voter lists should not be collected by the state prior to the election.
Hanaway and Carnahan also both endorsed changing the state law to allow early voting or, at minimum, “no-fault’’ absentee voting in which voters didn’t have to comply with a specific list of reasons.
Hanaway, now a lawyer in private practice, is considering bids for governor or attorney general in 2016. So far, she has not publicly indicated whether she still supports early voting.
