St. Louis election officials scramble, waiting for court

Absentee ballots must be available by Tuesday, yet St. Louis election officials haven't sent theirs to the printer yet. They're stuck waiting for a court decision.

The issue arises because Robin Wright-Jones, a St. Louis Democrat and House member, sued to knock fellow representative Connie Johnson off the August primary ballot for a state Senate seat. A judge ruled that Johnson did not meet the residency requirements and ordered her removed from the ballot. Johnson appealed, and the state Appeals Court's Eastern District heard arguments a week ago.

But the court has not ruled yet. That has officials at the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners scrambling. Republican election director Scott Leiendecker expressed his frustration with the court on Tuesday and said further delay could increase election costs.

"I don't quite understand what the holdup is," he said. "We've kind of stressed, both attorneys stressed, that time is of the essence. I don't know if they went on vacation or what."

Leiendecker had filed a motion to expedite the case, but the court tossed it, saying he's not an attorney and has no standing.

"It doesn't seem like they're really taking this case very seriously or the voters of St. Louis very seriously," he said.

Leiendecker said local election officials may meet and decide today how to proceed if there's still no word from the courts.

One option is to print two sets of ballots, one with Johnson's name and one without, half of which will ultimately be useless. Officials are also looking at splitting the database into two and at least getting the Republican ballots printed now, buying time to run the Democratic ones later. But that would slow vote tallying after the election, he said.

If the ruling doesn't come before Thursday, the city will incur unexpected overtime costs as the printer would have to be there through the weekend to get ballots done, he said.

"Ultimately the people that are going to pay for this are the taxpayers," he warned.

Still, he said that one way or another St. Louis will have absentee ballots ready as required next week.

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