Cole County Clerk: High turnout amplified some issues

Korsmeyer looking ahead to next election, ways to streamline voting

Mark Wilson/News TribuneVoters form a long line in the gymnasium at Blair Oaks High School just prior to polls closing Tuesday evening. Tuesday was voting day for the 2018 midterms.
Mark Wilson/News TribuneVoters form a long line in the gymnasium at Blair Oaks High School just prior to polls closing Tuesday evening. Tuesday was voting day for the 2018 midterms.

Given that 63 percent of Cole County voters went to the polls Tuesday for the general election, Cole County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer said he wouldn't be surprised if the turnout for the 2020 presidential election pushed 80 percent.

"It was more of a crowd than we had originally expected a few months ago," he said. "But as we got closer to the election, the number of people coming to the office to vote absentee kept going up so I wasn't surprised at how big of a turnout we had."

With the high volume of voters, Korsmeyer said some of the voting locations had people waiting in lines outside of the building.

"One thing that did surprise us was the high number of address changes we had to go through," he said. "People moved and didn't change their address on their voter registration so that slowed things down, but nobody left the lines. They stayed and voted."

Polling stations have different ballot styles available depending on what races and issues voters in the precinct are eligible to vote in and on, based on what districts they live in. Korsmeyer said the Taos and Scott Station precincts had shortages of the No. 2 ballot.

He said the shortage did not change the process for voters, but they just had to wait to receive paper ballots that were hand-counted.

Taos turned in 74 paper ballots, and Scott Station turned in 10. Korsmeyer said those hand-counted ballots will be included in the final, certified election results, along with provisional and military ballots.

Korsmeyer called the election successful and said there were also lots of address changes and forms he had to run out to polling stations. "I don't know how you can prepare for that," he said.

With different court cases on various ballot measures taking place before the election, Korsmeyer said ordering ballots was a challenge.

"If the courts threw the measures out, we didn't want to throw those ballots out," Korsmeyer said. "We're still figuring up what the final cost will be, but for our office, we not only have to pay for the ballots themselves, but we have to pay to have the voting machines and other equipment programmed. All of that is in one bill."

Korsmeyer said the county paid around $200,000 for the current voting equipment, which was first used in 2016. Because of this new equipment, Korsmeyer said, the county has $100,000 in election costs.

"We have half of it already paid for and should have it completely paid off in the next few years," Korsmeyer said. "Programming, ballot costs and maintenance costs have all gone down thanks to this equipment."

When asked if there were ways to improve the voting process, Korsmeyer immediately pointed out one suggestion.

"Early voting would be the simplest one," Korsmeyer said. "If the Legislature would pass a law allowing us to do a four-week early voting session, I think it would alleviate the big crowds like what we saw on Tuesday. You could have say 30,000 people go through and spread that amount over several days instead of having them all in one day."

Korsmeyer said in his re-election campaign that one of his chief goals was to create a voting center to make it easier for people to go vote in a centralized location. These have been done in large communities such as Springfield and Columbia.

"I want a center in Jefferson City where anybody can go vote," he said. "If they're coming to work in Jefferson City, instead of going back to their polling place to vote, they could come to the center and vote."

Korsmeyer acknowledged the biggest challenge to make a voting center a reality might be finding a facility that could handle the volume of people who could come to vote.

"You also have to get new equipment for that center, and more ballots would have to be made. But when you see the lines like we had at Calvary Baptist and Faith Lutheran, I think a center would help relieve the stress we saw at some of our polling places," Korsmeyer said.

There's one other area Korsmeyer wants to see improved: recruiting more poll workers.

"We have a great bunch of folks. But many are retired, and I know that these big elections can be very tiring and stressful," Korsmeyer said. "Many of the folks Tuesday told me they worked straight through the day because there were so many voters they couldn't stop to eat lunch.

"I really appreciate what they do for us, and I want to see more people get involved in the process," he said.