By NADIA PFLAUM
An alert reader pointed us to a curious passage on the Kansas City Election Board's Web siteunder the heading "Where Can I Register to Vote?"
By Mail: Because Missouri law requires voter registrations to be a certain format and printed on a thicker type of paper than that used by regular printers, voter registrations cannot be completed online, or from a registration form printed from the internet.
Bullshit, our reader said. After all, the Missouri Secretary of State site's voter section provides voter registration forms that a user can download according to county, print out, complete and mail to his or her election board. Why would the KC Election Board's rules differ? The reader saw the KC office's language as a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise voters with unnecessary extra steps -- it asks a citizen to fill out a request for a voter registration card, mail it in and then wait for a card to be mailed back to be filled out and sent away again by mail.
Shelley McThomas, the Kansas City Election Board's Democratic director, says the language is a misinterpretation and probably accidental. "What happens is, probably, within the context of the state statutes that govern elections, there is wiggle room," McThomas says. "Previous directors may have instituted some guidelines, and we have inherited various systems and procedures."
McThomas points to a passage deep within the murky realm of election statutes (15 CSR 30-4.010, in fact) where her predecessors might have found their funky language:
(1) A postcard voter application form titled Missouri Voter Registration Application shall be printed. All Missouri election authorities shall accept a completed and signed postcard voter application form as a valid application to register in their jurisdiction. In addition to the Missouri Voter Registration Application, each election authority may print and accept its own postcard voter application form which shall be substantially in the same form as the Missouri Voter Registration Application.
(2) Postcard Application Form Format and Content --
(A) The postcard application form shall be printed on white index one hundred ten (110) pound paper cut to ten inches by eight inches (10"- 8"), perforated into two (2) sections measuring five inches by eight inches (5"- 8").
Whew! Of course, McThomas and her Republican counterpart have decided that the excess language is confusing and unnecessary, and they are instructing their webmaster to reword the passage and provide either a link to the Secretary of State's page, with its downloadable form, or to make a form downloadable directly from the KC Web site.
"This is a great example of citizen participation in the democratic process," McThomas writes in an email to The Pitch. "We welcome questions from the public and consider it a victory when the end result is beneficial to the voting public."
Right. Just let us know when the site's fixed, mkay?
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Nadia, TFU-Say n-oay he-tay oter-vay egistration-ray etails-day!!!
Wait until AFTER the election, when I am on retainer and you have conspiracy to write about, before bringing this shit up!!! Dayum, now someone might use this as evidence that, if we lose the election, we were aware of these details beforehand. Such spilling of the beans beforehand is going to make it a lot harder for us to steal�errrr�rightfully win this election.
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