Missouri Republican election challenger says he should be allowed to watch early voting

ST. CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — A Republican committeeman has asked a judge to stop early voting in Missouri’s third-largest county until it allows “watchers” or "challengers” to observe the polls.

Early voting will continue in St. Charles County until a judge issues a decision, the county’s elections director, Kurt Bahr, and Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said. Early voting locations in the Republican-leaning suburban county near St. Louis were open Thursday, a day after Travis Allen Heins filed for his injunction.

A court hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday.

This is the first presidential election in which Missouri has had no-excuse absentee voting.

Under state law, each political party on the ballot can designate a “challenger” for every polling place on Election Day. For absentee voting, challengers are allowed at locations where ballots are counted.

Heins’ petition argues that he should be allowed to observe now because ballots are really tabulated as soon as voters feed them into a scanner.

“When election authorities deny the presence of a Challenger or Watcher, the safety and transparency of the elections are compromised,” Heins wrote in his petition.

The Associated Press left a message with Heins on Thursday seeking comment. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he has no suspicion of wrongdoing and simply wants to be able to observe.

Bahr said his office initially expected about 2,500 people to vote each day during the two-week early voting period that ends Monday. Some days, about 5,000 people have cast ballots. The county has 420,000 residents.

Leaders of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition said several people have been deterred from voting since the injunction request.

“This lawsuit is nothing but a voter suppression tactic designed to stop people from showing up to vote,” Zebrina Looney, president of the St. Charles County NAACP and a member of the coalition, said in an email.