SECOND REGULAR SESSION
SENATE BILL NO. 951
89TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY SENATOR SINGLETON.
Read 1st time February 25, 1998, and 1,000 copies ordered printed.
TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.
S3984.01I
AN ACT
To repeal sections 115.349, 115.383 and 115.637, RSMo 1994, and section 115.127, RSMo Supp. 1997, relating to elections, and to enact in lieu thereof four new sections relating to the same subject, with penalty provisions.
Section A. Sections 115.349, 115.383 and 115.637, RSMo 1994, and section 115.127, RSMo Supp. 1997, are repealed and four new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as sections 115.127, 115.349, 115.383 and 115.637, to read as follows:
115.127. 1. Except as provided in subsection 4 of this section, upon receipt of notice of a special election to fill a vacancy submitted pursuant to section 115.125, the election authority shall cause legal notice of the special election to be published in a newspaper of general circulation in its jurisdiction. The notice shall include the name of the officer or agency calling the election, the date and time of the election, the name of the office to be filled and the date by which candidates must be selected or filed for the office. Within one week prior to each special election to fill a vacancy held in its jurisdiction, the election authority shall cause legal notice of the election to be published in two newspapers of different political faith and general circulation in the jurisdiction. The legal notice shall include the date and time of the election, the name of the officer or agency calling the election and a sample ballot. If there is only one newspaper of general circulation in the jurisdiction, the notice shall be published in the newspaper within one week prior to the election. If there are two or more newspapers of general circulation in the jurisdiction, but no two of opposite political faith, the notice shall be published in any two of the newspapers within one week prior to the election.
2. Except as provided in subsections 1 and 4 of this section and in sections 115.521, 115.549 and 115.593, the election authority shall cause legal notice of each election held in its jurisdiction to be published. The notice shall be published in two newspapers of different political faith and qualified pursuant to chapter 493, RSMo, which are published within the bounds of the area holding the election. If there is only one so qualified newspaper, then notice shall be published in only one newspaper. If there is no newspaper published within the bounds of the election area, then the notice shall be published in two qualified newspapers of different political faith serving the area. Notice shall be published twice, the first publication occurring in the second week prior to the election, and the second publication occurring within one week prior to the election. Each such legal notice shall include the date and time of the election, the name of the officer or agency calling the election and a sample ballot; and, unless notice has been given as provided by section 115.129, the second publication of notice of the election shall include the location of polling places. The election authority may provide any additional notice of the election it deems desirable.
3. The election authority shall print the official ballot as the same appears on the sample ballot, and no candidate's name or ballot issue which appears on the sample ballot or official printed ballot shall be stricken or removed from the ballot except on death of a candidate or by court order.
4. In lieu of causing legal notice to be published in accordance with any of the provisions of this chapter, the election authority in jurisdictions which have less than five hundred registered voters and in which no newspaper qualified pursuant to chapter 493, RSMo, is published, may cause legal notice to be mailed during the second week prior to the election, by first class mail, to each registered voter at [his] such voter's voting address. All such legal notices shall include the date and time of the election, the location of the polling place, the name of the officer or agency calling the election and a sample ballot.
5. If the opening date for filing a declaration of candidacy for any office in a political subdivision or special district is not required by law or charter, the opening filing date shall be 8:00 a.m., the [fifteenth] thirteenth Tuesday prior to the election. If the closing date for filing a declaration of candidacy for any office in a political subdivision or special district is not required by law or charter, the closing filing date shall be 5:00 p.m., the eleventh Tuesday prior to the election. The political subdivision or special district calling an election shall, before the [fifteenth] thirteenth Tuesday prior to any election at which offices are to be filled, notify the general public of the opening filing date, the office or offices to be filled, the proper place for filing and the closing filing date of the election. Such notification may be accomplished by legal notice published in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the political subdivision or special district.
6. Except as provided for in sections 115.247 and 115.359, if there is no additional cost for the printing or reprinting of ballots or if the candidate agrees to pay any printing or reprinting costs, a candidate who has filed for an office or who has been duly nominated for an office, may, at any time after the certification required in section 115.125 but no later than 5:00 p.m. on the [sixth] eighth Tuesday before the election, withdraw as a candidate pursuant to a court order, which, except for good cause shown by the election authority in opposition thereto, shall be freely given upon application by the candidate to the circuit court of the area of such candidate's residence.
115.349. 1. Except as otherwise provided in sections 115.361 to 115.383, no candidate's name shall be printed on any official primary ballot unless the candidate has filed a written declaration of candidacy in the office of the appropriate election official by 5:00 p.m. on the [last] fourth Tuesday in March immediately preceding the primary election.
2. No declaration of candidacy for nomination in a primary election shall be accepted for filing prior to 8:00 a.m. on the [last] second Tuesday in [February] March immediately preceding the primary election.
3. Each declaration of candidacy for nomination in a primary election shall state the candidate's full name, residence address, office for which [he] such person proposes to be a candidate, the party ticket on which [he] such person wishes to be a candidate and that if nominated and elected [he] such person will qualify. The declaration shall be in substantially the following form:
I, .............................., a resident and registered voter of the ........................ precinct of the town of ...................., or the ................... precinct of the ....................... ward of the city of ..........................., or the ........................ precinct of .................... township of the county of ......................... and the state of Missouri, do announce myself a candidate for the office of ................. on the ................... party ticket, to be voted for at the primary election to be held on the ................. day of ..............., 19....., and I further declare that if nominated and elected to such office I will qualify.
............................................. Subscribed and sworn to
Signature of candidate before me this ........................ day of ...................., 19......
............................................ ....................................................
Residence address Signature of election official
or other officer authorized to
administer oaths
If the declaration is to be filed in person, it shall be subscribed and sworn to by the candidate before an official authorized to accept [his] such candidate's declaration of candidacy. If the declaration is to be filed by certified mail pursuant to the provisions of subsection 2 of section 115.355, it shall be subscribed and sworn to by the candidate before a notary public or other officer authorized by law to administer oaths.
115.383. Any election authority duly notified that a name is to be removed from the ballot or that a new candidate has been selected shall have the proper corrections made on the ballot before the ballot is delivered to or while it is in the hands of the printer. If time does not permit correction of the printed ballot, the election authority shall have prepared small pasters, suitable for covering the name to be removed on the ballots, ballot labels or on the protective covering of each voting machine. If a candidate is replaced by a candidate pursuant to the provisions of sections 115.361 to 115.377, the paster shall contain the name to be substituted in letters of the same size and type as all other names on the ballot. The appropriate election authorities shall see that such pasters are properly applied to the ballots, ballot labels or voting machines before they are used for voting.
115.637. The following offenses, and any others specifically so described by law, shall be class four election offenses and are deemed misdemeanors not connected with the exercise of the right of suffrage. Conviction for any of these offenses shall be punished by imprisonment of not more than one year or by a fine of not more than two thousand five hundred dollars or by both such imprisonment and fine:
(1) Stealing or willfully concealing, defacing, mutilating, or destroying any sample ballots that may be furnished by an organization or individual at or near any voting place on election day, except that this subdivision shall not be construed so as to interfere with the right of an individual voter to erase or cause to be erased on a sample ballot the name of any candidate and substituting the name of the person for whom he intends to vote; or to dispose of the received sample ballot;
(2) Printing, circulating, or causing to be printed or circulated, any false and fraudulent sample ballots which appear on their face to be designed as a fraud upon voters;
(3) Purposefully giving a printed or written sample ballot to any qualified voter which is intended to mislead the voter;
(4) On the part of any candidate for election to any office of honor, trust, or profit, offering or promising to discharge the duties of such office for a less sum than the salary, fees, or emoluments as fixed by law or promising to pay back or donate to any public or private interest any portion of such salary, fees, or emolument as an inducement to voters;
(5) On the part of any canvasser appointed to canvass any registration list, willfully failing to appear, refusing to continue, or abandoning such canvass or willfully neglecting to perform [his] such canvasser's duties in making such canvass or willfully neglecting any duties lawfully assigned to [him] such canvasser;
(6) On the part of any employer, making, enforcing, or attempting to enforce any order, rule, or regulation or adopting any other device or method to prevent an employee from engaging in political activities, accepting candidacy for nomination to, election to, or the holding of, political office, holding a position as a member of a political committee, soliciting or receiving funds for political purpose, acting as chairman or participating in a political convention, assuming the conduct of any political campaign, signing, or subscribing [his] such employee's name to any initiative, referendum, or recall petition, or any other petition circulated pursuant to law;
(7) On the part of any person authorized or employed to print official ballots, or any person employed in printing ballots, giving, delivering, or knowingly permitting to be taken any ballot to or by any person other than the official under whose direction the ballots are being printed, any ballot in any form other than that prescribed by law, or with unauthorized names, with names misspelled, or with the names of candidates arranged in any way other than that authorized by law;
(8) On the part of any election authority or official charged by law with the duty of distributing the printed ballots, or any person acting on [his] such election authority's or official's behalf, knowingly distributing or causing to be distributed any ballot in any manner other than that prescribed by law;
(9) Any person having in [his] such person's possession any official ballot, except in the performance of [his] such person's duty as an election authority or official, or in the act of exercising [his] such person's individual voting privilege;
(10) Willfully mutilating, defacing, or altering any ballot before it is delivered to a voter;
(11) On the part of any election judge, being willfully [absenting himself] absent from the polls on election day without good cause or willfully detaining any election material or equipment and not causing it to be produced at the voting place at the opening of the polls or within fifteen minutes thereafter;
(12) On the part of any election authority or official, willfully neglecting, refusing, or omitting to perform any duty required of [him] such election authority or official by law with respect to holding and conducting an election, receiving and counting out the ballots, or making proper returns;
(13) On the part of any election judge, or party watcher or challenger, furnishing any information tending in any way to show the state of the count to any other person prior to the closing of the polls;
(14) On the part of any voter, except as otherwise provided by law, allowing [his] such voter's ballot to be seen by any person with the intent of letting it be known how [he] such voter is about to vote or has voted, or knowingly making a false statement as to [his] such voter's inability to mark [his] the ballot;
(15) On the part of any election judge, disclosing to any person the name of any candidate for whom a voter has voted;
(16) Interfering, or attempting to interfere, with any voter inside a polling place;
(17) On the part of any person at any registration site, polling place, counting location or verification location, causing any breach of the peace or engaging in disorderly conduct, violence, or threats of violence whereby such registration, election, count or verification is impeded or interfered with;
(18) Exit polling, surveying, sampling, electioneering, distributing election literature, posting signs or placing vehicles bearing signs with respect to any candidate or question to be voted on at an election on election day inside the building in which a polling place is located or within twenty-five feet of the building's outer door closest to the polling place, or, on the part of any person, refusing to remove or permit removal from property owned or controlled by [him] such person, any such election sign or literature located within such distance on such day after request for removal by any person;
(19) Accepting compensation for registering voters, except those persons prescribed by law to register voters.