McCaskill's office will audit St. Louis Election Board

ST. LOUIS -- The state auditor's office agreed Thursday to examine the St. Louis Election Board's finances after Mayor Francis Slay called for scrutiny of how $350,000 in cell phone bills went unpaid for two years.

Slay asked State Auditor Claire McCaskill to find out how the election board spent an additional $500,000 the city budgeted for the board this year, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on its Web site.

He said the audit is needed. "There's a big mess over there. There are virtually no fiscal controls," Slay said.

A spokesman for the state auditor's office said McCaskill will next determine the scope of the audit. "Any time we do an agency audit, it's a process that can take several months," spokesman Glenn Campbell said.

Improper use of the phones has been an issue previously.

Most recently, an investigation by circuit attorney Jennifer Joyce of missing and misused cell phones apparently stolen during the August election turned up little information after three months. She said it appeared a crime had been committed, but because of poor record-keeping, it was unclear who was responsible.

It is thought about 40 cell phones were used to rack up $35,000 in charges.

Slay first learned of some trouble with the phones after receiving a call at home from a worker in his office who was helping the morning of the November election. She said cell phone service was not on. Slay talked with a management official at Verizon, and cellular phone service was activated about two hours after the polls opened.

The city's election practices and the board also came under close scrutiny following the November 2000 election, when hundreds of voters were turned away from the polls and told to go to the election board headquarters downtown, where they encountered long lines. A judge kept the polls open that night after 7 p.m., allowing people to vote in the city while polls were closed elsewhere. That decision was quickly reversed.

The incident focused attention on St. Louis voting procedures and resulted in a federal lawsuit. A consent decree reached last year requires the city to run its polls better.

Part of the problem at the polls was the lack of phones when information needed to be checked. The cellular phones were part of an effort to make it easier to verify voter eligibility.

More recently, the state attorney general's office said the board has been violating Missouri's Sunshine Law by holding closed meetings on matters that should be discussed in public.

The city funds the Election Board, but the governor's office oversees its operations.

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On the Net:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: http://www.stltoday.com