New law allowing mail-in ballots to end in 2020

Recent court ruling allowed thousands of Missouri voters to submit their ballot via mail this election season. However, new law allowing this expires at the end of 2020 and will likely not be an option for voters in future elections.

This election season many voters in Missouri and in other parts of the U.S. were granted the opportunity to vote via mail, a permission typically granted to residents with special exceptions.

Law passed in June 2020 gave all Missourians the right to submit a ballot through the mail this election season, many choosing to do so as COVID-19 lingers.

But the law allowing mail-in ballots in Missouri, which passed in June, expires at the end of 2020. The state legislature would have to step in to extend the option.

Kansas City, Mo. alone reported over 19,000 mail-in ballots on Election Day.

Despite the rather unprecedented changes this year mostly attributed to COVID-19, no major issues were reported by election commissioners in the Kansas City metro regarding mail-in ballots.

Clay County election officials reported receiving more than 17,000 mail-in ballots under the new law, which are different than absentee or in-person absentee ballots that have been permitted in pre-COVID-19 elections.

“As we expand that ability to not do in-person voting, we need to make sure that we understand we’re increasing the ability for elections to go longer,” Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who was re-elected Tuesday, said via videoconference. “We are increasing the potential for people’s votes not to count.”