The Missouri legislature adjourns on Friday evening, May 16. Still pending are two ballot access bills, one helpful, one harmful. Also still pending is a bill to require voters at the polls to show a government photo-ID.

The helpful bill, SB 797, is listed as a consent bill in the House, which means that it will pass the House as soon as the House takes up consent bills, which could be Monday, May 12. However, since the House Committee attached an unrelated provision, the bill would then need to return to the Senate. SB 797 fixes the typographical error in the 1993 ballot access reform bill, which forces groups that circulate the petition for a new party to list a presidential candidate (but not candidates for other office) on the petition.

HB 1310, the harmful bill, moves the deadline for all independent candidates (even president) from July to March. It has passed the House, but not the Senate, and the Senate Committee has not voted to send it to the Senate floor. Therefore, it is probably dead.