“I understand it’s up to each individual County, but it would be nice to be unified in this decision, to save confusion for the voters,” said Lincoln County Clerk Crystal Hall in an email Monday to other local election officials. “We are in scary, uncertain times. The health of our poll workers and residents is our number one concern.”

Hall said she and others on the association’s executive board were seeking feedback from around the state. A draft request to the courts along those lines was being prepared by election officials in Springfield and suburban Kansas City, she said.

Under Missouri law, election dates can be shifted by state appeals court panels if a “disaster” prevents one from being held.

The St. Louis County board, in its request filed Saturday, had said the likely withdrawal of numerous poll workers because of the coronavirus scare led it to believe the April 7 election could not be held as scheduled.

The board pointed out that in the “lead up” to last week’s Missouri presidential primary, 111 election judges withdrew and an addtional 59 pulled out on Election Day itself. Since then, the board said, government officials’ warnings and orders about COVID-19 have “intensified exponentially.”