During a day of municipal and school district elections, the biggest story was a shortage of ballots at many St. Louis County polling places.
Poll workers at 60 county voting precincts realized early that there could be an acute shortage of ballots, with some sites receiving as few as five.
The problems, according to Eric Fey, the St. Louis County Board of Election’s Democratic director, began because some polling places needed ballots for both school board elections and municipal government races. In some municipalities, voters from different wards or districts also use the same precinct. Shortages also happened because the number and type of ballots provided to some precincts were reversed, Fey said. In addition, county election officials decided in February that it would be too difficult to recalibrate electronic voting machines after the March 15 Missouri presidential primary. As a result, voters on Tuesday had to use paper ballots.
Yesterday, the Missouri Court of Appeals at St. Louis ruled that 63 precincts in 24 polling places must remain open two hours after the scheduled closing time of 7 p.m. Few voters cast ballots, however, following the ruling. St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Maura McShane had rejected the request to extend the hours earlier in the day, which led to the appeal.
“The St. Louis County Board of Elections and particularly its two directors [Fey and Republican director Gary Fuhr] must rectify these mistakes, explain how they occurred, and be held accountable for this unacceptable failure,” said Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon.
Secretary of State Jason Kander, who is running for U.S. Senate, said his office would investigate the election day debacle, calling it “unacceptable." The St. Louis County Council also plans a public hearing where Board of Elections members will have to explain what happened on Tuesday. “That board really needs to get its act together,” said County Executive Steve Stenger.
The election board is not run by St. Louis County; its members are nominated by the governor. Republican and Democratic directors are selected by those members, and the lead director is an appointee of the party holding the governor’s office.
