Denise Lieberman, adjunct professor of law and faculty director of the university’s Voter Access and Engagement Initiative
No one should have to choose between their right to vote and their health. There are steps we can take to ensure access to the ballot for Missouri voters in 2020, but the time for decisive action is now. Missouri lawmakers returned to session last week. They must appropriate funds to scale up increased mail-in voting and other measures. And Missouri’s chief elections official must offer clear direction on the path forward and ensure local election authorities have the resources they need to administer what will certainly be the most unusual and challenging elections in our lifetimes.
The Missouri Voter Protection Coalition has outlined the measures Missouri must take to ensure voting in the wake of the pandemic. These measures reflect recommendations of national voting rights experts like me with focus on the particulars of Missouri’s election practices. They’ve been endorsed by some 50 organizations in Missouri. Needed measures for voting in Missouri in this pandemic include several critical pieces: expanded absentee voting by mail, bolstering online voter registration, polling place accommodations and robust voter assistance and education.
Read the full piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.