JEFFERSON CITY — With a little more than a week left in session, the Missouri Senate has advanced election legislation that carries many GOP priorities.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. , R-Washington, was initially a renewed voter ID law but grew to encompass other issues, including the mandated use of paper ballots.
Democrats, who were skeptical of the legislation, stretched negotiations well into Tuesday night. But after winning key changes to the bill, including the authorization of no-excuse absentee voting and mitigating certain GOP proposals, they eventually stood down.
The bill’s first-round approval late Tuesday broke the two-day deadlock after Democrats filibustered an anti-transgender athlete bill sponsored by Sen. , R-Ash Grove. Moon retaliated by stalling any Senate operations through Monday night.
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Democrats said despite the negotiations, the bill, which obtained House approval in March, was largely counterproductive to securing voting rights.
“This is born out of the ‘Big Lie,’†said Sen. , D-south ºüÀêÊÓƵ County, referring to claims that former President Donald Trump actually won the 2020 presidential election. “Born out of something that never happened. And we’re now trying to ‘correct our elections.’ At the end of the day, does this get more people voting? How are we helping people passed barriers to voting?â€
The Senate sponsor of the bill, Sen. , R-Buffalo, pushed back on the criticism.
“I don’t want to and I don’t think anyone in this room wants to prohibit anyone who’s eligible to vote from voting,†she said.
Crawford also spoke against the “personal attacks†she’d received from voting advocates over the bill, saying they’d been a “real challenge to deal with.â€
Under the bill, voters without a photo ID on election day could cast a provisional ballot. These provisional ballots may be verified if a voter returns to the polling place with a photo ID or the election authority verifies the ballot signature matches a signature on file.
The bill also prohibits election authorities from receiving private funding.
An amendment proposed by Sen. , R-Republic, allowing the secretary of state to withhold state funds from local election authorities generated hours of debate.
Democrats argued this, along with a provision giving the secretary of state control over audits of local voter registration records, gave the official “unprecedented power.â€
Under another heavily debated amendment, local election authorities could only receive private donations collected and distributed by the secretary of state in a funding shortage.
GOP senators also added amendments to allow voters the option to register with a political party and require cybersecurity reviews of local election authorities by the secretary of state or a qualified firm.
Democrats won concessions during the debate, eventually adding an amendment to adopt two weeks of no-excuse absentee voting before elections.
The provision, which would allow voters to vote at designated sites before an election, is tied to the voter ID provision and will be canceled if courts strike down the photo ID requirement.
The bill will come up for another vote in the Senate before returning to the House for consideration.
The legislation is .
Originally posted at 11:35 a.m. Wednesday, May 4.