Missouri Democrats will have 92 polling locations set up in 84 counties and the city of St. Louis on March 23 for voters to participate in a party-run presidential primary.
Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to noon. Voters may also request mail-in ballots from the party, but the requests must be received by Tuesday and must be returned to state party headquarters by 10 a.m. on March 23.
When Democrats announced the plan in September, they said they hoped to find a location for in-person voting in all 114 counties and the city of St. Louis, with multiple locations in major urban areas.
Most of the counties where no location is available are among the state’s smallest in terms of population and include most of the counties along the Iowa border and in Missouri’s Bootheel. The party tried but was unable to secure locations in those counties, said Chelsea Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the party.
There are three polling sites in Jackson County and four each in St. Louis and St. Louis County.
Voters are not restricted to casting ballots in their home county if they were registered before Feb. 21, Rodriguez said.
“Anyone can go vote at any site, not just the sites in their counties,” Rodriguez said. “In the Bootheel, we were able to get a location in Dunklin County at the courthouse, but unfortunately not any other.”
President Joe Biden, who faces no serious opposition for renomination, is expected to win the primary handily.
From 2000 to 2020, Missouri had a state-run presidential primary. Lawmakers repealed the law authorizing the primary in 2022 and efforts to revive it last year fell short when the state Senate descended into factional gridlock.
Republicans reverted to a caucus system and on Saturday former President Donald Trump won a decisive victory over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Following similar defeats Tuesday in multiple states, Haley ended her campaign.
Democrats decided to stage the party-run primary, at a cost of $250,000 to $450,000, to provide the widest possible chances for voter participation, the party stated in a news release.
The release accused GOP majorities in the legislature of trying to make it harder for voters to express themselves by eliminating the primary.
“Missourians have watched the Republicans in the legislature come after our fundamental rights and personal freedoms session after session,” state Sen. Karla May of St. Louis said, “and this move was no different.”
