Absentee Voting Begins Tomorrow For August 5th Primary
Absentee voting in Missouri’s August 5th primary begins tomorrow. In the city there are six different sample ballots:
- Libertarian Party
- Constitution Party
- Non-Partisan
- Green Party
- Republican Party
- Democratic Party
Let’s look at each:
The Libertarian Party ballot includes:
- Five ballot questions
- One candidate for state auditor
- One candidate for U.S. Rep Dist 1
- One candidate in each of the following state rep districts: 81 & 83
The Constitution Party ballot includes:
- Five ballot questions
- One candidate for state auditor
The Non-Partisan ballot includes:
- Five ballot questions
The Green Party ballot includes:
- Five ballot questions
- One candidate for St. Louis license collector
The Republican Party ballot includes:
- Five ballot questions
- One candidate for state auditor
- Three candidates for U.S. Rep Dist 1
- One candidate in each of the following State Rep districts: 66, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83, 91, & 93
- One candidate for St. Louis recorder of deeds
The Democratic Party ballot includes:
- Five ballot questions
- One candidate for U.S. Rep Dist 1
- Two candidates for State Sen Dist 4
- One candidate in each of the following State Rep districts: 66, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 91, & 93
- Two candidates in each of the following State Rep districts: 76, 77
- One candidate for St. Louis collector of revenue
- Two candidates for St. Louis license collector
- Three candidates for St. Louis recorder of deeds
The St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners has sample ballots of all 6 here. However, two of the six are wrong due to last minute certifications from Secretary of State Jason Kander:
- Courtney Blunt will be on the August 5th Republican ballot as a candidate for State Sen Dist 4
- Natalie A. Vowell will be on the August 5th Democratic ballot as a candidate for State Rep in the 78th district, making the 78th a challenged district
Lots of different party ballots, very few seats challenged within the respective party. I count 41 candidates total, all but 9 will win the nomination of their party on August 5th if they manage to get just one vote. This means in November we’ll see quite a few contested races.
The 5 ballot questions are:
- Constitutional Amendment 1 (Agriculture & ranching)
- Constitutional Amendment 5 (right to bear arms)
- Constitutional Amendment 7 (sales tax for transportation)
- Constitutional Amendment 8 (Veterans lottery ticket)
- Constitutional Amendment 9 (electronic search & seizure)
Tomorrow I’ll be voting against the first three, at this point I’m still unsure about the last two. I’ll take a Democratic ballot so I can vote in the two challenged citywide races (license collector, recorder of deeds), though I’m still undecided on both.
Voters in St. Louis County can review a 47-page PDF of ballet content. If you’re not registered to vote, you can do so through July 9th.
— Steve Patterson
We need real, legal early voting in Missouri. Making voters come / make up with a “reason” to vote absentee is asinine! The goal should be to encourage an honest vote from every citizen. Once we pass that philosophical hurdle, we need to look at mail-in ballots and, eventually, online voting. This isn’t the 19th century – we don’t need to expect everyone to show up someplace in a 12-hour window and wait in line!
Is it possible to do split-ticket voting for this election?
No, this is a partisan primary — you must pick which party ballot you want.
That is ridiculous. That is not power to the people. That is power to the parties. What if I like a Democratic candidate for one position, Green for another, Republican for a third, and Constitution for a fourth?
Where is the freedom here?
I’m not aware of anywhere in this country where you can vote for primary candidates for more than one party. In the November general election you’ll be able to vote for anyone on the ballot, regardless of their party affiliation.
Again, no freedom there. It’s all power to the parties. America is not free.
Huh? The primaries are to allow party members to select their PARTY’S candidate, the general election is for EVERYONE to select the most qualified candidate from primary winners, along with independent (not affiliated with any party) and write-in candidates. It’s a winnowing out process. The alternative (which I don’t oppose) is to have non-partisan elections (no party affiliations identified), with the top two vote-getters doing a run-off election if no one gets more than 50% of the votes cast. I think they’re doing this in parts of California, and that’s how city races are done in Denver. No process is perfect, but I don’t think that anyone is being disenfranchised by the current process – parties have power in America because we, the people, allow them to have power. And whether you call them parties, alliances, coalitions or unions, the very nature of government relies on groups of people coming together with common interests, working toward common goals. If you want to define “freedom” as the majority doing everything that one individual wants or demands, you’re looking for either an impossible utopia or a dictatorship!
We well know that the Republicans and Democrats are not controlled by we the common people. Big deep pockets control these parties… it’s not even close to freedom. We desperately need a third party..
The time for that argument is in November. Get people to run as independents and give people more choices. Having candidates running as an R or a D is pretty much a given, and a party can help both financially and in providing some assurances about where a “new” candidate stands, but given the dismal approval ratings for most politicians, mounting a viable campaign with fresh ideas is not all that impossible – see the inroads that the tea party has made and their impact on both the Republican party and the larger legislative agenda. If you want to see a successful third or fourth party, I sure wouldn’t worry about the primaries – I’d focus my energies on identifying viable candidates, honing their messages, raising money and physically working to get people to vote for them – door-to-door lit drops, phone banks, supporting them on he blogosphere, giving voters rides to the poll, and the like – grassroots at its finest!
The Democratic Party ballot includes one candidate for U.S. Rep for district 2 as well. Arthur Lieber is the Democrat running against Republican Ann Wagner. According to the PDF, there is also a Libertarian candidate for the 2nd district.