115.655. Delivery of official ballots, how--voting procedures--form of return identification envelope--replacement ballots, when--return of--counting of ballots.
Delivery of official ballots, how--voting procedures--form ofreturn identification envelope--replacement ballots, when--returnof--counting of ballots.
115.655. 1. The election authority shall provide for thedelivery of official ballots to each qualified voter:
(1) By first class mail to the mailing address of eachvoter as it appears on the registration records of the electionauthority on the deadline specified in subsection 1 of section115.135 for registration. Each ballot so mailed shall be placedby the election authority in an envelope which is prominentlymarked "Do Not Forward" and mailed not later than the tenth dayprior to the election; or
(2) By delivering the ballot to the residential address ofthe voter as it appears on the registration records of theelection authority on the deadline specified in subsection 1 ofsection 115.135 for registration. Such delivery shall be made bya bi-partisan team appointed by the election authority from listssubmitted under the provisions of section 115.087.
Voters shall also be provided with a return identificationenvelope, a secrecy envelope, and instructions sufficient todescribe the voting process.
2. Upon receipt of the ballot, the voter shall mark it,place and seal the marked ballot in the secrecy envelope suppliedwith the ballot, place and seal the sealed secrecy envelopecontaining the marked ballot in the return identificationenvelope supplied with the ballot which has been signed by thevoter and then return the marked ballot to the election authorityby either:
(1) United States mail; or
(2) Personally delivering the ballot to the office of theelection authority.
3. The election authority may provide additional sites forreturn delivery of ballots. The election authority may providefor the payment of postage on the return of ballots.
4. The return identification envelope shall be insubstantially the following form:
PLEASE PRINT:
NAME ..........................
I declare under penalty of perjury, a felony, that I am aresident and a qualified voter for this election as shown onvoter registration records and that I have voted the enclosedballot and am returning it in compliance with sections 115.650 to115.660, RSMo, and have not and will not vote more than oneballot in this election.
I also understand that failure to complete the informationbelow will invalidate my ballot.
................................
Signature
................................
Residence Address
................................
Mailing Address (if different)
5. If the ballot is destroyed, spoiled, lost or notreceived by the voter, the voter may obtain a replacement ballotfrom the election authority as provided in this subsection. Avoter seeking a replacement ballot shall sign a statementverified on oath or affirmation, on a form prescribed by theelection authority that the ballot was destroyed, spoiled, lostor not received. The applicant shall deliver the statement tothe election authority before noon on the date of the election.The applicant may mail the statement to the election authority;but, no election authority shall transmit a ballot by mail underthis subsection unless the application is received prior to theclose of business on the fifth day prior to the election. Whenan application is timely received under this subsection, theelection authority shall deliver the ballot to the voter if thevoter is present in the office of the election authority, orpromptly transmit the ballot by mail to the voter at the addresscontained in the application, except when prohibited in thissubsection. The election authority shall keep a record of eachreplacement ballot provided under this subsection.
6. A ballot must be returned by mail or received in theoffice of the election authority or at a site provided forreceipt of ballots by the election authority no later than 7:00p.m. on election day. The election authority shall transmit allreturn identification envelopes to a team or teams of judges ofnot less than four, with an equal number from each majorpolitical party. The judges shall be selected by the electionauthority from lists submitted under the provisions of section115.087, and subscribe to the oath provided in section 115.091.Upon receipt of such envelopes the judges shall verify thesignature of each voter on the return identification envelopewith the signature of the voter on the voter registrationrecords. Such verification may commence at time prior to the dayof the election. The election authority shall adopt proceduresfor securing and accounting for all verified returnidentification envelopes. The secrecy envelope shall not beseparated from the return identification envelope before ballotsare counted. Ballots may be counted at any time on election dayprovided the results are not released before 7:00 p.m. on thatday. Counting of ballots may be done by hand or through theutilization of automatic tabulating equipment and shall begoverned by the applicable sections of this chapter.
(L. 1988 H.B. 1426 § 3)