Why Missouri election officials are telling people not to vote (yet)

Por Casey He — POLITICO – TOP Stories

Several local election officials in Missouri are advising voters to consider delaying casting their ballots until the Supreme Court resolves a tangled legal fight around the state’s congressional map.

Absentee voting in Missouri began Tuesday, when counties began accepting in-person voters and mail ballots from those who are not able to vote on Election Day.

Voting started despite the fact that the state is still waiting on the Supreme Court to decide which congressional map Missouri will use in less than six weeks.

Missouri Republicans tried to jam through a gerrymander that would net them one seat in 2025, a move that was ultimately rejected by the state Supreme Court earlier this month. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice seemingly rejected using the new map this year, but a federal appeals court Monday ordered the state to use the new map in November.

“We’re not telling them not to vote,” said Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon. “We want to caution voters that they might want to wait because of the federal litigation.”

Another appeal sits at the Supreme Court now, and a decision could come at any moment. Right now, election officials are proceeding with using the same map that was used in the 2024 election — but if the Supreme Court sides with state Republicans or does not act, the lower court order demanding the use of the new, gerrymandered map would go into effect.

In Boone County, a map change could affect 40% of its voters, Lennon said. She added that more than a dozen people have come to vote in person since Tuesday, and several decided to wait, but others said they had to cast a ballot because this will be their only chance.

The county also mailed out about 1,200 ballots.

Since voters can only cast a ballot once, and there’s no mechanism for the county to cure a ballot, Lennon said the absentee voters should wait if they can. She added that there’s no guidance for a ballot change so close to Election Day, and it’s unclear if a map change would invalidate the entire ballot or just the House selection.

The change would also require the county to reprint ballots and purge and reprogram its voting system, which may be “a weekend project,” Lennon said. “We will try as hard as we can to do it quickly.”

Missouri has arguably seen the most chaotic redistricting out of any state in the nation since President Donald Trump kicked off a frenzied race to gerrymander across the country in 2025.

Initially, Missouri Republicans answered the president’s call, obliterating Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City-based district to push forward a map that would change the 6-2 GOP delegation to a 7-1 one.

Democrats quickly launched a counteroffensive, launching a ballot campaign to ask voters to reject the new map this November, which would freeze the gerrymander from being used in the meantime.

But Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins dragged the process out and ruled on primary day that Democrats’ efforts were insufficient, ultimately resulting in the August primaries being held under the new, 2026 gerrymander lines.

The state Supreme Court then ruled unanimously earlier this month that Hoskins — who did not immediately respond to a request for comment on local election officials’ guidance — improperly denied Democrats’ ballot measure.

Their decision placed the referendum on the November ballot, freezing efforts to use the new gerrymander and ruling that the 2024 lines must be used in November.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh initially turned down an emergency appeal from state officials to use the gerrymandered lines Sept. 8, but within minutes of his order, a federal district court blocked the state from returning to the 2024 lines. The nation’s high court again blocked that decision, only for a federal appeals court to revive the gerrymander again.

Now, a third appeal to the Supreme Court would likely be the final word.

A map change would affect every one of Jackson County’s voters, since the gerrymander places the entire county in a different House district, said County Clerk Diane Thompson.

“If they are not in a hurry, and they have time, if they can put it off at all, it would be ideal so they don’t miss out on the opportunity to vote on the correct ballot,” Thompson said.

Clinton Jenkins, the Miller County clerk and a former president of the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities, said he has been coordinating with other affected counties this week to ensure they all have access to on-demand ballot printing so they can continue with absentee voting.

Miller County has not seen in-person absentee voters yet, but it has mailed out ballots, Jenkins said. All of the county’s about 19,000 registered voters would be affected by a map change.

“If they can slow it down until a decision, it will be beneficial to everyone,” Jenkins said.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories