The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting women the right to vote, was ratified on August 18, 1920.
Yesterday, on the Johnson County Courthouse lawn in downtown Warrensburg, area Democrats held a rally to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the amendment.
Approximately twenty-five individuals attended, wearing masks and keeping social distance.
Lindsey Simmons, the Democratic Party candidate in the 4th Congressional District.
Throughout the rally occasional passersby, clued in by the large banners, would rev their vehicle engine, shout occasionally audible 19th century sentiments, and in one case, peeled out down the street. Welcome to Missouri in the 21st century.
“Donald Trump!” – the hand holding a cigarette out the passenger side window is a nice touch.
Lindsey Simmons, the Democratic Party candidate in the 4th Congressional District.
Representative Bruce Franks, Jr. (D) [2019 file photo].
Representative Bruce Franks, Jr. (D) introduced HB 508 which restores voting rights to individuals on probation for a felony by removing that voting prohibition in statute.
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE FRANKS JR. 0276H.01I DANA RADEMAN MILLER, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
To repeal section 115.133, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to voter qualification.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 115.133, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu 2 thereof, to be known as section 115.133, to read as follows: 115.133.
1. Except as provided in subsection 2 of this section, any citizen of the United States who is a resident of the state of Missouri and seventeen years and six months of age or older shall be entitled to register and to vote in any election which is held on or after his eighteenth birthday.
2. No person who is adjudged incapacitated shall be entitled to register or vote. No person shall be entitled to vote:
(1) While confined under a sentence of imprisonment; or
(2) After conviction of a felony or misdemeanor connected with the right of suffrage.
3. Except as provided in federal law or federal elections and in section 115.277, no person shall be entitled to vote if the person has not registered to vote in the jurisdiction of his or her residence prior to the deadline to register to vote.
The text of the removed provision [in bold]:
“…No person who is adjudged incapacitated shall be entitled to register or vote. No person shall be entitled to vote: While on probation or parole after conviction of a felony, until finally discharged from such probation or parole…”
Missourians have been busy signing letters today – and at least some of Missouri’s Democratic pols are doing so in a good cause – protesting the new, reconfigured, better-than-ever, poll tax proxies that constitute the latest salvos in the newly energized GOP war on voting:
House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) and Ranking Member of the House Administration Committee Robert Brady (PA-01) led a letter sent to Secretaries of State today urging them to oppose new state measures adopted over the last year that would make it harder for eligible voters to register or vote. The letter was signed by 196 House Democrats, including Hoyer and Brady.
Adding their names to the letter were all three of Missouri’s Democratic House members, Emanuel Cleaver (05), Russ Carnahan (03), and Lacy Clay (01). Republicans signing the letter: zero, zip, nada. I guess they were just too scared by the ghost of Acorn or some other fictional agent of non-existent voter fraud. Or maybe they’re just afraid of their own constituents?
