ANSWERS NEEDED IN ST. LOUIS VOTING FIASCO

It's been quite a while since Missouri has seen an election night like the one that unfolded Nov. 7.

Democrats alleged people were being denied their right to vote in St. Louis and said the problem worsened as the day wore on.

In the afternoon, state Sen. William "Lacey" Clay and others went to court. As a result, at around 6 p.m., Circuit Judge Evelyn Baker ordered that the polls be kept open in the city until 10 p.m., three hours after the closing everywhere else. Republicans appealed, and within about 45 minutes, a three-judge panel of the Eastern District Missouri Court of Appeals overturned Baker's order.

It is undisputed that voting continued in the city, perhaps for hours. As the day unfolded, a small number of election officials stood by and issued orders that certain voters appearing before them be allowed to vote.

Among the problems was that certain voters were turned away from their usual precincts and were told to go downtown to the office of the city elections board, where long lines formed out into the streets, greatly extending the amount of time it took to vote. The whole scene was a mess and raised many questions. Indeed, this remarkable tale would have been a far more compelling national story but for the chaos unfolding in Florida.

All this cries out for investigation at various levels. Raising the possibility of criminal vote fraud, U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI director Louis Freeh, urging a formal inquiry.

The city elections board is a political body all of whose members were appointed by the late Gov. Mel Carnahan and confirmed by the Missouri Senate. It seems proper that Senate leaders should get busy and empanel an investigating committee to take testimony and learn what happened. Indeed, last week, Senate minority leader Steve Ehlmann of St. Charles, who was elected a judge earlier this month, sent a letter to Senate president pro tem Ed Quick of Liberty, urging this course of action. Secretary of State Bekki Cook also announced last week that she had sent three members of her staff to look into the matter.

Meanwhile, we urge other news media to shine the spotlight on all this. Corruption of the integrity of our elections is now a major state- and national-level problem. It is time all involved take this seriously and provide the public with some answers, the sooner the better.