Justice Department officials to monitor St. Louis election

ST. LOUIS -- Two Justice Department officials will monitor Tuesday's primary elections in St. Louis, where problems at the polls in November 2000 led to chaos.

The federal monitors also have ordered that St. Louis' election board sign a consent decree soon to resolve problems from the 2000 presidential election or face a lawsuit against the city by Friday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Saturday.

The Justice Department also threatens to name the state as a defendant, the newspaper said.

The election board has replied that it won't sign, partly because it doesn't have the money to meet the end-of-the-week deadline, the newspaper reported.

Rufus Tate, the board's attorney, has maintained he doesn't necessarily agree with the proposed consent decree, saying "it's a disservice to the people of the city of St. Louis who do not believe that this place is corrupt or that their election commissioners are corrupt."

Watched mayoral primary

The Justice Department told Secretary of State Matt Blunt's office a week ago that it was sending representatives to observe Tuesday's election, Blunt spokesman Spence Jackson said. The monitors will be the same two who watched the March 2001 mayoral primary.

One monitor will stay at the city board headquarters; the other will rove among polling places during the primaries that include races for U.S. senator, the legislature, the city's aldermanic board and other city offices.

In November 2000, crowds of voters lined up at election board's downtown headquarters clamoring for ballots. They had been turned away at neighborhood polling places because they weren't on the "active voter" list. Many were on the inactive list, which was only available at headquarters.

Election officials responded by keep the polls open beyond closing time.

After investigating, the Justice Department in May announced plans to sue the city over its handling of the inactive voters list. When the government sent the city a proposed settlement last month, there were no allegations of fraud. Instead, the settlement focused on reducing the number of people on the inactive voter list and how to get them to their correct polling places.

Since then, the two sides have continued private talks.

"I can't go into detail," Tate said. "None of the lawyers can."

Michael Zwibelman, the Justice Department attorney who drafted the settlement, had no comment Friday, and Justice Department spokeswoman Casey Stavropoulos said she could not discuss a potential suit.

Voter lists, cell phones

The inactive voter list now is available at each polling place, and each site has a cell phone. At headquarters, the board added 15 phone lines and additional staff. People whose names appear on the inactive list also now can fill out a voter affidavit at any polling place to get authorization to vote.

"No one is dragging their feet on this," Tate said.

Also being discussed is the question of who will pay for changes the government seeks: the city, the state or the federal government.

"All of that assumes that there is something legally inadequate about the way that we currently administer the list," Tate said.

Tate has said he is not persuaded that the board did anything to violate federal election law. Citing the gag agreement, he would not comment on that Friday.