Bush Campaign Urges Missourians To Break The Law

A recent e-mail message from President Bush's campaign encourages supporters who may be busy on Election Day to cast absentee ballots. But being busy isn't a legal reason to vote absentee in Missouri. A Democratic Party spokesman says the message appears to be an early voting scheme. But a Bush campaign spokesman says the e-mail is legal because it has a link to an Internet page where a Missouri voter would see that being busy isn't enough justification for early voting. State law authorizes absentee ballots only for people who:

--will be gone on Election Day;
--are working for an election authority;
--are incapacitated by illness or disability;
--are in the military;
--or who can't go to a polling place because of their religious beliefs.