Lawsuit alleges Jay Ashcroft wrote intentionally deceptive ballot language for voter reform

[TexasTowelie]

Lawsuit alleges Jay Ashcroft wrote intentionally deceptive ballot language for voter reform initiatives


A St. Louis attorney who filed a slate of voter reform petitions in Missouri is suing Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, alleging that Ashcroft “intentionally cherry-picked portions of the initiative petitions and described them in as loaded and pejorative terms as possible, while leaving out aspects of the initiative petitions likely to be popular with voters.”

The 16 petitions submitted by Mary Anne Sedey all propose state constitutional amendments that could appear on the statewide 2020 ballot and make the voting process easier for Missourians.

If passed, those initiatives would create an automatic registration system for eligible voters. They would allow absentee voting in-person or by mail, up to six weeks before an election without requiring voters to provide a reason (aka no-fault absentee voting). They would permit voters to permanently register to receive mail-in ballots. They would expand the time military ballots can be received and counted. They would call for an audit of election returns for irregularities. They would also require that election authorities count votes cast on provisional ballots in a voter’s election jurisdiction for measures the voter is eligible to vote on.

Some of the petitions also would institute automatic pre-voter registration for individuals age 16 and over who will be eligible to vote at 18 years old. The initiatives differ in slight ways because it was unclear which petitions the state would sign off on. However, they were all approved for circulation—which means if enough signatures (over 150,000) are collected for any of the petitions, the slate of reforms will appear on the ballot.

Read more: https://www.thepitchkc.com/lawsuit-alleges-jay-ashcroft-wrote-intentionally-deceptive-ballot-language-for-voter-reform-initiatives/