Judge OKs Democrats' request to block election results

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A federal judge temporarily blocked certification of Missouri's primary election results in federal and statewide races Wednesday and set a hearing for next week on whether to count the ballots of some people who voted at the wrong polling places.

At issue is how to count "provisional ballots" cast by people whose eligibility could not be verified when they showed up to vote.

The Missouri Democratic Party had asked the court to block certification of the Aug. 3 election results until the lawsuit is resolved; to require election officials to count the plaintiffs' provisional ballots; to declare parts of the state law in violation of federal law and the equal-protection clause of the U.S. Constitution; and to block election officials from following parts of that state law.

Senior U.S. District Judge Scott O. Wright issued a temporary restraining order blocking election certification for federal and statewide offices and issues. He set a hearing for next Wednesday.

Provisional votes can be cast only for federal and statewide candidates and issues, not local contests.

In the lawsuit, the Democratic Party and three Kansas City residents who cast provisional ballots in the wrong places claim Missouri law violates the federal Help America Vote Act, enacted after the election troubles of 2000.

State law says that registered voters who cast provisional ballots at the wrong polling place cannot have their votes counted. Federal law says people should be allowed to cast a provisional ballot if they affirm they are registered voters in that jurisdiction but also specifies that election officials should count such votes only if voters are eligible "under state law."

The Democratic Party claims registered voters should be allowed to cast provisional ballots from anywhere in the jurisdiction where they are registered to vote, not just the polling place to which they are assigned.

The lawsuit was filed against Missouri Secretary of State Matt Blunt and others. Blunt is the Republican nominee for governor, facing Democratic State Auditor Claire McCaskill in November.

Among the attorneys for the Democrats is Chuck Hatfield, Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon's campaign treasurer. The Blunt campaign and the state Republican Party suggested the suit is politically motivated.

Republican Party spokesman Paul Sloca noted that Democrats have sued Blunt, as the state's chief election official, three times this year: over the timing of the vote on the amendment to ban gay marriage, which Democrats won; over allowing early voting in St. Louis, which is pending; and now, over provisional ballots.

"It appears Democrats are determined to cause chaos at the polls," he said.

This is not the first time the state's provisional balloting procedures have been challenged in court. In 2002, McCaskill and a Democratic state senator sued over a rule Blunt was implementing to carry out the state's provisional balloting law, claiming it imposed more restrictions than the law allowed. The matter eventually was settled with an agreement that the rule would spell out specific procedures to follow when considering a person's eligibility for provisional voting.

"This new rerun seeking the same vote-anywhere rule is transparently intended to be part of the McCaskill campaign," secretary of state spokesman Spence Jackson said.

He said the lawsuit could delay distribution of some absentee ballots, as the gay marriage amendment challenge did earlier this summer.