The three Republicans running for Cole County clerk all believe the office is running well right now, but do want to see greater efforts to get people out to the polls and vote.
All three believe they can work with the County Commission and other county officeholders without contention.
They all favor a voter ID measure.
State lawmakers have proposed that voters be required to show a specified form of photo-identification, such as a driver's license and non-driver's-license, while limiting or excluding other forms, such as a college ID, in order to cast a ballot.
For now, there is no such requirement of photo ID only in Missouri.
The candidates do have different takes on the issue of early voting.
The amendment on the ballot approved by lawmakers limits early voting, which is different from absentee voting, to six business days starting two weeks before the election. The amendment would allow voting during regular business hours on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the first week and the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the second week. No evening or weekend voting would be allowed, and early voting would only takes place at the county clerk's office.
An initiative petition also proposing early voting, which has yet to be certified by the secretary of state, would allow six weeks of early voting, including evenings and weekends, and depending on the number of registered voters in a county, possibly at other locations in the county other than the clerk's office.
All three candidates believe if they get in they'll inherit an office that is already in good shape.
"I think Marvin (Register) has done a marvelous job and I want to the keep the office staff in place because they know what's going on," said Steve Korsmeyer. "There are only a couple of things I would change. I'd work on updating the office website with current information."
"I think the office is well run, but with anything you can find things to be improved on," Rik Combs said.
"Marvin and his staff have done a wonderful job, but there are always improvements that could be made no matter what," Patty Bates said.
Voter turnout was a major concern for all three candidates.
"Having 10 percent voter turnout is unacceptable and I want people to know their vote counts," Korsmeyer said. "We need to motive people to get out and vote."
"I think elections are key to our country and Republic and I've have always been fascinated by elections," Combs said. "Once I retired from the Air Force I worked for the supervisor of elections in Florida and we fought voter fraud so that ties in with the clerk position I'm running for. We planned and operated all elections, including early elections. We conducted training for electronic voting for the disabled.
"The challenge of today is getting people to get out and vote," Bates said. I want to look at different ways to get the message out to people. Technology has changed so much with Facebook and Twitter we can reach more people. Our voting percentages have been low in several elections and no matter what the issues are if there is a vote people need to know how important it is and that they can make a difference."
All three candidates believe they can work well with the county commission and other county elected officials if they get into the office.
"You can't run a successful service business unless you have good people skills," Korsmeyer said. "I know the current commissioners and I think I should be able to get along with them so I don't see any conflicts with anybody."
"I know all the commissioners and have personal knowledge of every elected official and I don't see why I can't have an excellent working relationship with them," Combs said. "We need to remember we are always accountable to the taxpayers."
"In my experience I've dealt with state, county and city employees and getting everyone to work together so it shouldn't be a problem for me working with commissioners and others," Bates said. "I will be there every day and a full-time county clerk. If people vote for me, their taxes pay my wages, so I will be there for them. I want to learn every position so that if someone is out I can help..learn every aspect of the office."
Two of the three candidates would not favor early voting.
"We already have absentee voting and a lot of the reasons people need to vote early are covered by absentee," Korsmeyer said. "The voting process is a big job and spreading it out over several days, I think, it would be hard to keep the integrity of the voting process. The polls are open 13 hours and three are 36 polling places so there's plenty of time and places to vote already."
"I saw it firsthand in Florida and a lot of people didn't take advantage of it," Combs said. "There were a lot of days there were very few or no voters. You have to think about the cost involved. A normal election in Jefferson City costs about $30,000. I can't imagine how that would escalate with early voting here."
"Early voting may help the percentage of voter turnout," Bates said. "People have personal issues come up and may need to vote at different times. We do need to look at the cost. If the polls have to be open six weeks prior to the election and it has to be done at different locations we have to look at how much it costs, but if it's just like at absentee voting and it could take place at the clerk's office I might think differently."
All three candidates favor voter ID.
"I think you should be able to produce an ID to vote," Korsmeyer said. "I'm not intimidated by new technology. I think voting has been so much easier with the scanning system."
"I carried a military ID for years and it's impossible without going someplace and getting a check of your ID," Combs said. "I see no reason an individual can't have a form of ID for voting."
"I don't think it's a big deal," Bates said. "You already have to have an ID to get registered to vote."