Early absentee voting in some parts of the country — fueled by concern over COVID-19 and the race for the president’s office — seems to indicate the likelihood of a larger voter turnout for Tuesday’s general election.
In Perry County, early numbers are up a bit as well, but County Clerk Jared Kutz doesn’t feel those numbers are indicative of much aside from people wanting to get a jump on Election Day.
“I, at this point, am not of the belief that overall turnout is going to be increased,” Kutz said Tuesday. “I just think there’s a lot more people taking advantage of the opportunity to cast their vote absentee in my office or by mail this year. I just don’t think it equates to a higher turnout on Election Day.”
With a week to go before the election, Kutz said his staff has already collected more in-person absentee votes as they did in total during the last presidential election — 798 absentee ballots were cast in 2016 — and the number is expected to keep climbing.
“We’ve got another couple hundred ballots that are in envelopes that have been mailed into my office, but clearly the majority of folks have been taking advantage of the walk-in absentee at my office,” Kutz said. “We’re right around 1,000 votes cast, which is a couple hundred more than it was in 2016 already.”
According to the Secretary of State’s office, Perry County has 13,043 registered voters, up from 12,705 in August, when 4,592 votes — or 36.14 percent — were cast in the primary.
For this election, Kutz said he expects voter turnout to be similar to 2016.
“I think overall turnout will still be around 73 percent,” Kutz said.
According to information released by the Secretary of State’s office, 60,748 mail-in ballots had been requested through Sunday, along with 631,615 absentee ballots. More than 555,630 ballots have already been returned to local election authorities.
Although the deadline to request a ballot by mail has passed, absentee ballots are available at the county clerk’s office for those who will not be able to make it to the polls or those who fall into higher-risk categories for contracting COVID-19.
In-person absentee voting will continue at Kutz’s office from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 2, including from 8 a.m.-noon Saturday, Oct. 31. Voters who take advantage of the in-person absentee voting may have to wait a few minutes.
“I think we had 71 voters vote in person [on Monday],” Kutz said, “including people that walked in and the ones who did curb service. We’ve got plenty of help inside. We’re always able to process folks, but we’ve already had multiple times the last couple of days where we’ve processed the voter, but they’re still waiting for a booth or whatever. So we’ve got clipboards we’re handing to people and things like that to try to get them in and out. It takes about 5-7 minutes to cast a ballot.”
Kutz said his office is also ready to provide curbside service for those who are unable to make it inside his office.
“I’ve got two of the regular parking spaces designated as voter parking, and we’ve got the handicapped spaces,” Kutz said. “So we’ve got plenty of parking designated for folks to walk in and vote absentee in advance of Election Day.”
Among the approved reasons for voting absentee are being absent from the jurisdiction of the election authority in which such voter is registered to vote on election day; incapacity or confinement due to illness or physical disability, including a person who is primarily responsible for the physical care of a person who is incapacitated or confined due to illness or disability; religious belief or practice; employment as an election authority, as a member of an election authority, or by an election authority at a location other than such voter’s polling place; incarceration, provided all qualifications for voting are retained; and certified participation in the state’s address confidentiality program.
Those who plan to vote at the polls on Nov. 3 can expect to see the same protocols that have been in place since the postponed municipal election in June.
Those protocols include face coverings for election workers and increased sanitization.
Driving expected voter turnout this year is the presidential race, which pits Republican incumbents Donald Trump and Mike Pence, against former vice president Joe Biden, a Democrat, and his vice-presidential running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris.
Regionally, southeast Missouri residents will be asked to choose between incumbent U.S. Congressman Jason Smith, a Republican, and challengers Kathy Ellis, a Democrat, and Libertarian Tom Schmitz for Missouri’s Eighth Congressional District seat.
Aside from those races, there are a number of others that will impact Missouri residents.
At the top of the list for statewide office is the race for governor. Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who assumed the office after the resignation of former governor Eric Greitens in 2018, is facing off against Democratic challenger Nicole Galloway, who currently serves as state auditor.
The two big party candidates, along with Libertarian Rik Combs and Green Party candidate Jerome Howard Bauer, faced off in a debate earlier this month in Columbia.
Galloway, the only Democrat holding a statewide office, repeatedly took direct aim at Parson, saying he was “just in over his head” and had “failed the test of leadership” amid a 25-year high in homicides in St. Louis and more than 2,000 deaths in Missouri attributed to COVID-19.
Parson said Missouri’s economy was recovering faster than other states and called his handling of the pandemic a “balanced approach” to fighting the disease, before taking aim at Galloway, trying to tie her to a movement to “defund the police,” an assertion she rejected. The two did not speak after the debate.
For their part, the two other candidates focused on their own platforms. Combs focused on free enterprise and machine politics while Bauer shared his views regarding a universal basic income and shifting police resources to other initiatives.
Also on the ballot are contested races for lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, and attorney general.
On a more local level, Perry County residents will get to choose between Republican Holly Rehder and Democrat Donnie Owens for the 27th District seat in the state Senate, which will be vacated by term-limited Republican Sen. Wayne Wallingford.
In the state House of Representatives, Republican incumbent Rick Francis of Perryville is seeking re-election to the 145th District seat against Democratic challenger Mike Lindley of Glenallen.
At the county level, the race for associate commissioner of District 2, a seat that will be vacated by retiring Commissioner Jim Sutterer, is down to two — Republican Keith Hoehn and Independent Rocky Schumer.
In the primary, Hoehn, 47, topped a field of seven Republican candidates, while Schumer, 53, saved his efforts for November. Both candidates said the maintenance and improvement of county roads would be high on their list of priorities, although Hoehn said that’s not the only thing to consider.
“Years ago, roads and bridges was the primary job of the commissioners and it still is 100 percent of their responsibility, but this is less than 30 percent of the job anymore,” Hoehn said in a response to a questionnaire sent to the candidates by the Republic-Monitor earlier this month.
He said he hoped to institute a “grader day” in the Boise Brule Bottoms and choose a lead road grader operator.
Responding to the same question, Schumer said he had plans of his own.
“While every county has organizations to address employment opportunities, housing, and infrastructure, the biggest need for the commissioners to address is the continuation of road pavement as funds permit,” Schumer said.
Missourians will also vote on two statewide ballot issues Tuesday, after approving one statewide issue at the polls on Aug. 4.
The two ballot measures to be decided Nov. 3 include the topics of state legislative redistricting and statewide officeholder term limits. Both issues were placed on the ballot by the General Assembly.
One proposal — Amendment 3 on the ballot — is a constitutional amendment that would regulate the General Assembly and change redistricting methods by making modifications to Article III of the state’s constitution, making significant changes to the “Clean Missouri” ballot issue approved by voters in 2018, including not counting children when configuring legislative districts.
Amendment 3’s proposals, if approved by voters, would include:
The other constitutional amendment on the Nov. 3 ballot, known as Amendment 1, would extend the two-term restriction that currently only applies to the governor and state treasurer.
Amendment 1 would prohibit any person from being elected more than twice to the office of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, or attorney general.
Any person who holds such an office for more than two years of a term for which another person was elected shall not be elected more than once to that office. Service as governor and state treasurer resulting from an election or appointment prior to Dec. 3, 2020, would count towards the term limitations.
