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Local civil rights leaders were among those who called for measures this week, including expanded absentee voting by mail, intended to protect people's ability to vote amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Missouri secretary of state, however, has said it would take a change of law in order for there to be an expansion of absentee voting.
Nimrod Chapel Jr., president of the Missouri State Conference of the NAACP, and the Rev. Cassandra Gould, executive director of Missouri Faith Voices, were among those in the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition that called in a news release Monday for expanded absentee voting, "bolstered online voter registration," advance voting before Election Day, polling place accommodations and "robust voter assistance and education."
The coalition described itself as a "nonpartisan statewide network of voter advocates" and said its policy recommendations were "crafted in collaboration with national and state voting rights experts, advocates and officials, focused on the particulars of Missouri's election law and administration."
"Missouri leaders must ensure that any Missouri voter is able to cast an absentee ballot by mail in 2020," Chapel said in the news release.
Barring a change in law by the Missouri Legislature, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said Monday, absentee ballots could not be proactively sent out by the secretary of state's office or local election authorities to people voting in the municipal elections in June or the statewide primary in August, unless those voters meet the statutory requirements.
Under current law, voters are eligible to vote absentee if they will be absent on the day of the election in the jurisdiction where they are registered to vote; are incapacitated or confined due to illness or physical disability, or are the primary caregiver of such a person; because of religious belief or practice; are working as an election authority at a location other than their polling place; are incarcerated but can still legally vote; or are certified as having their address be confidential for safety concerns.
The Missouri Voter Protection Coalition wanted social distancing to be another reason for a voter to cast an absentee ballot. The coalition also wanted Missouri lawmakers to include expanded absentee voting by mail in disaster-relief appropriations.
Ashcroft said he's been working with legislative leadership on possibilities.
Whether the law is changed, he said, "we are identifying polling locations that will not put people at risk. We are identifying poll workers. We are identifying new procedures and methodologies to allow people to vote."
Some of those new methods might include expansion of curbside voting, setting up drive-thru voting and using disposable pens and styluses. Ashcroft added personal protective equipment and disinfectants are also being readied.
Curbside voting is already available as one of the options for voters with limited physical mobility. Under normal circumstances, someone can be asked to go into a polling place and ask a poll worker to bring out a ballot.
"My biggest concern is what happens in November," he said, because while social distancing may offer a reprieve for the elections this summer, "there is some concern that in November, potentially (the virus) comes back," maybe even worse than it is now.