This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 17, 2012 - Democratic secretary of state hopeful Jason Kander is ratcheting up criticism against GOP nominee Shane Schoeller for a proposal substantially changing how Missouri's absentee ballots are handled.
House Speaker Pro Tem Shane Schoeller, R-Willard, pushed legislation earlier this year requiring a form of citizenship in order to register to vote, such as a driver’s license, birth certificate or a passport. The bill didn't pass.
But Schoeller's legislation also made major changes to how absentee balloting operates. For one thing, it would require someone to show government-issued photo identification when applying for an absentee ballot.
It would have removed a section within state law stipulating that an absentee ballot could be returned to an election authority by “a relative of the voter who is within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity, by mail or registered carrier or by a team of deputy election authorities.”
Instead, the bill changed that to “person designated in writing by the voter at the time the request for an absentee ballot is made."
Additionally, the legislation stipulated that the designated person must “also sign a statement that the designee has not exercised any undue influence on the voting decisions of the voter than that such designee agrees to deliver the ballot as directed by the voter.”
In effect, the provision would have outlawed most absentee balloting by mail, which currently is allowed in every state in the country, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
At Tuesday’s labor rally in St. Louis, Kander attacked Schoeller for proposing the bill. Taking away absentee balloting by mail, he said, would have affected the elderly, the disabled -- and especially, soldiers stationed overseas. Kander noted that over 320,000 Missourians used mail-in absentee in the 2008 presidential election, including many soldiers.
Kander, a veteran of the Afghanistan conflict, prompted the crowd to erupt into cheers as he referred to fellow soldiers still overseas and declared: "I am not about to allow Shane Schoeller to take away the rights they are risking their lives for."
“Two years before that in 2006, I was in Afghanistan on Election Day,” Kander said in an interview from earlier this week. “And if it hadn’t been for an absentee ballot, I would not have had an opportunity to participate in the democracy that I was there to protect. And for me, that’s why I lead a bipartisan coalition and opposed that bill."
In an interview on Tuesday, Schoeller said the whole purpose behind the proposal was “making sure that we have a better method to verify the absentee ballot."
“If they wanted to choose someone to hand-deliver it, they have that option,” Schoeller said. “They would be able to do that. So that was the goal that we were trying to put forth and we wanted to have that discussion. Certainly, I know the discussion that my opponents tried to say that I was somehow trying to disenfranchise military men and women overseas voters from voting was just completely false.”
“I’ve always been a strong proponent of anything we can do to make sure that they … not only can vote, but more importantly, that the ballots they cast get there on time," he added. "And that’s been part of the problem. And we certainly want to work with that.”
The bill would have kept in place the portion of the law allowing military voters to cast ballots by fax or e-mail through a Department of Defense program. And it also would have kept a phrase stating "no election authority shall refuse to accept and process any otherwise valid marked absentee ballot submitted in any manner by an absent uniformed services voter or overseas voter solely on the basis of restrictions on envelope type."
Schoeller's legislation became an issue during primary season, as his two opponents – state Sens. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, and Scott Rupp, R-St. Charles – criticized the measure.
At a forum in Columbia, Schoeller said he was “working with the chairman to make sure we have clarity in the language.”
Schoeller and Kander are both competing to replace Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, a Democrat who is retiring after two terms.
Schoeller has made enacting a requirement that voters present government-issue photo identification a centerpiece of his campaign, while Kander - along with other Democrats - are opposed to such a move, saying many Americans lack the documents needed to get such an ID.
