State Rep. Dan Shaul is the latest guest on Politically Speaking, where the Imperial Republican talked with St. Louis Public Radio’s Jason Rosenbaum about a host of issues around Missouri elections — and expectations for congressional redistricting later this year.
Shaul is the chairman of the House Elections Committee, as well as a special House committee overseeing congressional redistricting. He was first elected to the Missouri House in 2014 and will be barred from running again after 2022 by term limits. He is one of several Republicans who announced their bids for a Jefferson County-based Senate seat.
Here’s what Shaul talked about during the show:
- Why lawmakers want to pursue a three-week period when voters could cast absentee ballots in person with no excuse. Currently, Missourians have to provide one of a number of excuses in order to vote absentee — including being out of town or being physically incapacitated.
- Why the legislature was trying to reenact Missouri’s photo identification requirement to vote. That measure was effectively made inactive by a Missouri Supreme Court decision.
- Other election-related ideas, including increasing the number of signatures required to get something on the statewide ballot and increasing the percentage of the vote needed to pass a constitutional amendment.
- With lawmakers expected to convene this winter to vote on congressional redistricting, Shaul provided his take about the expectations and priorities for Republicans who will control the process. This is the first time in modern Missouri history that Democrats haven’t controlled either a legislative branch or the governorship during a redistricting year.
When Shaul was first elected to the Missouri House, a slew of Republicans managed to win seats in Jefferson County. Since his first win, Shaul has won reelection by increasingly wider margins as the county gravitated more to the Republican Party.
In addition to his legislative duties, Shaul is the executive director of the Missouri Grocers Association. Before he started working in the grocery industry, Shaul served in the Air Force.
Follow Jason Rosenbaum on Twitter: @jrosenbaum
