One Ballot's Journey: How Absentee And Mail-In Ballots Are Counted In Missouri

As of Tuesday, a record-breaking 628,000 Missouri voters have already cast ballots ahead of Election Day. Thousands of voters are steering clear of polls to avoid catching or spreading the coronavirus, which reached record levels of new cases and deaths in the state this month.

The state has followed a seismic shift nationally in American voting patterns. Missouri lawmakers in June expanded vote-by-mail options to make it easier for voters to cast ballots before Election Day, Nov. 3. Under the new laws, the number of voters casting absentee ballots doubled previous election records. In both the 2016 and 2012 general elections, fewer than 300,000 Missourians voted absentee.

Claims by President Trump that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud have been proven baseless, but some voters still question how secure it is to vote in advance of Election Day.

So, what happens after you cast an absentee or mail in ballot? The process varies slightly from county to county in Missouri, based on the technology and staffing available at local election authorities, but all ballots follow roughly the same path. To clarify what that looks like, here’s the journey that mine is taking in St. Louis County.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/government-politics-issues/2020-10-30/one-ballots-journey-how-absentee-and-mail-in-ballots-are-counted-in-missouri