Election Day is tomorrow, Tuesday November 8th, and the Audrain County Clerk’s office is busily preparing.
Lisa Smith is the County Clerk, and said they’ve already had more than 300 ballots cast at their office under the no-excuse absentee voting law that went into effect in August.
“We are pretty busy,” Smith said. “We started doing that two weeks prior to the election, and people are really taking advantage of that and coming in to our office.”
She said there are more than 15,000 registered voters in the county, and they have enough materials in place for 85% of those voters to show up on Election Day.
Due to the size of the county, there will not be a central polling location, but Smith said there will be 15 polling places throughout Audrain County open tomorrow, and a complete list of those locations can be found on the County's website.
Smith said they don’t anticipate long waits at any of the polling places, but she does ask that everyone remain patient.
“When I do my training for my poll workers, I asked that they, you know, just show every voter respect,” Smith said. “And I ask that the voters would do the same thing.”
She stressed that this year voters must have a non-expired, government-issued photo ID to vote at polling locations – such as a Missouri driver’s license, non-driver’s license, military ID or US Passport.
Voters without a valid ID can still cast a provisional ballot or get a free Missouri non-driver’s license from the DMV in Mexico.
Polls will be open tomorrow from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.