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EXPLANATION-Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets [thus] in this bill is not enacted
and is intended to be omitted in the law.
SECOND REGULAR SESSION
SENATE BILL NO. 1201
103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY SENATOR HUDSON.
4113S.02I KRISTINA MARTIN, Secretary
AN ACT
To repeal section 115.637, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to election
offenses, with penalty provisions.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Section 115.637, RSMo, is repealed and one new 1
section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 115.637, 2
to read as follows:3
115.637. The following offenses, and any others 1
specifically so described by law, shall be class four 2
election offenses and are deemed misdemeanors not connected 3
with the exercise of the right of suffrage. Conviction for 4
any of these offenses shall be punished by imprisonment of 5
not more than one year or by a fine of not more than two 6
thousand five hundred dollars or by both such imprisonment 7
and fine: 8
(1) Stealing or willfully concealing, defacing, 9
mutilating, or destroying any sample ballots that may be 10
furnished by an organization or individual at or near any 11
voting place on election day, except that this subdivision 12
shall not be construed so as to interfere with the right of 13
an individual voter to erase or cause to be erased on a 14
sample ballot the name of any candidate and substituting the 15
name of the person for whom he or she intends to vote; or to 16
dispose of the received sample ballot; 17
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(2) Printing, circulating, or causing to be printed or 18
circulated, any false and fraudulent sample ballots which 19
appear on their face to be designed as a fraud upon voters; 20
(3) Purposefully giving a printed or written sample 21
ballot to any qualified voter which is intended to mislead 22
the voter; 23
(4) On the part of any candidate for election to any 24
office of honor, trust, or profit, offering or promising to 25
discharge the duties of such office for a less sum than the 26
salary, fees, or emoluments as fixed by law or promising to 27
pay back or donate to any public or private interest any 28
portion of such salary, fees, or emolument as an inducement 29
to voters; 30
(5) On the part of any canvasser appointed to canvass 31
any registration list, willfully failing to appear, refusing 32
to continue, or abandoning such canvass or willfully 33
neglecting to perform his duties in making such canvass or 34
willfully neglecting any duties lawfully assigned to him or 35
her; 36
(6) On the part of any employer, making, enforcing, or 37
attempting to enforce any order, rule, or regulation or 38
adopting any other device or method to prevent an employee 39
from engaging in political activities, accepting candidacy 40
for nomination to, election to, or the holding of, political 41
office, holding a position as a member of a political 42
committee, soliciting or receiving funds for political 43
purpose, acting as chairman or participating in a political 44
convention, assuming the conduct of any political campaign, 45
signing, or subscribing his or her name to any initiative, 46
referendum, or recall petition, or any other petition 47
circulated pursuant to law; 48
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(7) On the part of any person authorized or employed 49
to print official ballots, or any person employed in 50
printing ballots, giving, delivering, or knowingly 51
permitting to be taken any ballot to or by any person other 52
than the official under whose direction the ballots are 53
being printed, any ballot in any form other than that 54
prescribed by law, or with unauthorized names, with names 55
misspelled, or with the names of candidates arranged in any 56
way other than that authorized by law; 57
(8) On the part of any election authority or official 58
charged by law with the duty of distributing the printed 59
ballots, or any person acting on his or her behalf, 60
knowingly distributing or causing to be distributed any 61
ballot in any manner other than that prescribed by law; 62
(9) Any person having in his or her possession any 63
official ballot, except in the performance of his or her 64
duty as an election authority or official, or in the act of 65
exercising his or her individual voting privilege; 66
(10) Willfully mutilating, defacing, or altering any 67
ballot before it is delivered to a voter; 68
(11) On the part of any election judge, being 69
willfully absent from the polls on election day without good 70
cause or willfully detaining any election material or 71
equipment and not causing it to be produced at the voting 72
place at the opening of the polls or within fifteen minutes 73
thereafter; 74
(12) On the part of any election authority or 75
official, willfully neglecting, refusing, or omitting to 76
perform any duty required of him or her by law with respect 77
to holding and conducting an election, receiving and 78
counting out the ballots, or making proper returns; 79
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(13) On the part of any election judge, or party 80
watcher or challenger, furnishing any information tending in 81
any way to show the state of the count to any other person 82
prior to the closing of the polls; 83
(14) On the part of any voter, except as otherwise 84
provided by law, [allowing his or her ballot to be seen by 85
any person with the intent of letting it be known how he or 86
she is about to vote or has voted, or] knowingly making a 87
false statement as to his or her inability to mark a ballot; 88
(15) On the part of any election judge, disclosing to 89
any person the name of any candidate for whom a voter has 90
voted; 91
(16) Interfering, or attempting to interfere, with any 92
voter inside a polling place; 93
(17) On the part of any person at any registration 94
site, polling place, counting location or verification 95
location, causing any breach of the peace or engaging in 96
disorderly conduct, violence, or threats of violence whereby 97
such registration, election, count or verification is 98
impeded or interfered with; 99
(18) Exit polling, surveying, sampling, 100
electioneering, distributing election literature, posting 101
signs or placing vehicles bearing signs with respect to any 102
candidate or question to be voted on at an election on 103
election day inside the building in which a polling place is 104
located or within twenty-five feet of the building's outer 105
door closest to the polling place, or, on the part of any 106
person, refusing to remove or permit removal from property 107
owned or controlled by such person, any such election sign 108
or literature located within such distance on such day after 109
request for removal by any person; 110
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(19) Stealing or willfully defacing, mutilating, or 111
destroying any campaign yard sign on private property, 112
except that this subdivision shall not be construed to 113
interfere with the right of any private property owner to 114
take any action with regard to campaign yard signs on the 115
owner's property and this subdivision shall not be construed 116
to interfere with the right of any candidate, or the 117
candidate's designee, to remove the candidate's campaign 118
yard sign from the owner's private property after the 119
election day. 120
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