St. Louis sues to allow early voting in state

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The city of St. Louis and some Democratic lawmakers sued Missouri's chief election official Monday, seeking a court order allowing an early voting period before the Nov. 2 general election.

If the lawsuit is successful, Missourians could vote for president, governor and other local officials anytime between Oct. 19 and 27. Missourians currently can vote absentee beginning six weeks before an election, but only if they will be unable to vote in person on election day.

Republican Secretary of State Matt Blunt, the lawsuit's defendant and the Republican gubernatorial front-runner, insists that Missouri law does not permit a general early voting period. He says a 2002 law on the subject only required election authorities to develop a plan for early voting.

The lawsuit filed in Cole County Circuit Court contends the 2002 law allows -- and, in fact, requires -- advance voting for general elections.

The city of St. Louis already has allocated $75,000 to pay for an early voting period there. But it's unclear how other jurisdictions -- or the state -- would pay for the extra voting days, should a judge rule they must occur.

"I think it's an opportunity for all voters, regardless of their party affiliation, to have an opportunity to vote in a more convenient way," St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said in a telephone interview Monday. "This is an effort to make voting easier for voters all over the state of Missouri."

Other plaintiffs include U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, a Democrat from St. Louis, and state Rep. Wes Shoemyer, D-Clarence, who contend they need to know for campaign planning purposes whether earlier voting will be allowed. Former state Rep. Craig Hosmer, D-Springfield, and St. Louis resident Ernestine Hill are listed as plaintiffs wanting to vote in advance of the general election.

Thirty-one states already allow unconditional early voting, either in person or by mail-in ballots, according to the National Association of Secretaries of State.

Blunt supports early voting and urged legislators to include it in the 2002 legislation, but he says lawmakers dropped language that would have explicitly required early voting. Instead, he says, lawmakers opted only to require plans for it, relegating other specifics in the bill, such as the dates of early voting, to merely points in those plans.

"The city of St. Louis is trying to invent a new kind of election chaos to replace the 2000 disaster in the city," Blunt spokesman Spence Jackson said in a statement. "In this lawsuit, the City Hall crowd wants a judge to impose the mayor's plan on the entire state and order an overthrow and replacement of our entire presidential voting system in less than 90 days, a surefire ticket to statewide confusion on election day."

During the November 2000 election, some St. Louis residents were turned away from polls because election workers could not determine if they were eligible to vote. Because of the confusion and long lines, a judge ordered the city's polls to remain open after the 7 p.m. closing deadline, but was overturned by an appeals court judge about 7:45 p.m.

The U.S. Justice Department and the city Board of Election Commissioners reached a consent decree in August 2002, concluding that some eligible voters -- who had been placed on an inactive list -- were unable to vote in 2000 because of insufficient staff and equipment to verify their eligibility. The decree also laid out steps to improve St. Louis' election procedures.