State redistricting puts constraints on local election officials

By Emily Skidmore, Columbia Missourian

Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon expressed concerns Monday about the adoption of a new congressional redistricting map because no data has been given to her office besides the proposed map provided by the Missouri House of Representatives.

“We have a very narrow time frame of being able to get this information in and still be able to hold an election with the new boundaries,” Lennon said.

Voter registration information in Missouri is held by a database, Missouri Centralized Voter Registration, which assigns district boundaries and voter district assignments based on addresses for elections. Clerks conduct address changes in the system manually, she said. Boone County continues to be a split county in the proposed map, however the details around that division line for these districts is unclear, Lennon said. tncms-asset)f0f8a7c8-0cab-4cfc-91b2-1243df4509bd[0](/tncms-asset)

“Aside from the proposal that’s out there, we haven’t seen anything in terms of how that line really breaks against the city of Columbia,” Lennon said.

In the redistricting done after the 2020 census, the county was split north/south along Broadway into separate congressional districts. Images of the new maps show a different alignment with more of Columbia in the 3rd Congressional District.

Lennon joined the Missouri County Clerks Association to write a letter informing Gov. Mike Kehoe, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins and majority leaders in the House and Senate of the time restrictions that elections bring. The letter was sent before Kehoe’s redistricting announcement on Aug. 29.

Every election period in Missouri, by law, is 10 weeks prior to Election Day. Missouri Centralized Voter Registration “locks” current district boundaries during active election period, so changes cannot be made, according to the letter.

Boone County will hold an April 7 municipal election and Aug. 4 primary election before midterms in November next year.

Missouri Centralized Voter Registration prevents clerks from changing any districts during an election period because it would affect voters receiving the correct ballot, Lennon said.

Lennon says that once data becomes available, the Boone County Clerk’s Office can begin preparations in informing voters and updating the database in time for elections.

“The more advanced notice and the more data that we have available to us, the better job we can do of serving the voters,” Lennon said.

The proposed map is expected to be approved by the House and sent to the Senate this week.