U.S. Justice Dept. will file suit against St. Louis Election Board - Vote Fraud 2000

St. Louis Post-Dispatch ^ | 08/08/2002 08:34 PM | Karen Branch-Brioso

[aristeides]

Maybe investigation of the one will lead to investigation of the other.

[show me state]

Update

WASHINGTON - Officials from the St. Louis Election Board and the city plan to meet through the weekend with federal officials to settle a Justice Department lawsuit not yet filed but expected to allege that voters were hampered by the board's "inactive voter list."

Michael Zwibelman, a Justice Department attorney, told state, city and board lawyers Thursday that he would file the suit Friday. But a flurry of last-minute efforts by the St. Louis Election Board's general counsel, Rufus Tate, to persuade him otherwise apparently worked, and the suit was not filed.

Negotiations on a proposed consent decree - a negotiated settlement - went into the evening Friday.

"I envision us working around the clock throughout today, tomorrow and Sunday," Tate said.

Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo commented: "I don't think we're going to see anything until Monday."

The suit was one of five the Justice Department authorized to address allegations of voting rights violations in the 2000 presidential election. Three of the suits, in Florida, have been settled. A suit involving Tennessee is working toward a similar resolution.

Tate faxed a proposal to Zwibelman Thursday evening suggesting the board would hire more election judges, publicize the "inactive voter list" and provide more space for balloting at Board of Election headquarters downtown.

According to a copy of a draft consent decree proposed by Zwibelman on July 11, the government alleged that the Election Board's complicated procedures for handling people on its inactive voter list effectively violated the federal Voting Rights Act.

"Certain eligible but inactive voters were unable to vote in the November 2000 general election because there were insufficient phone lines, staff and other infrastructure to enable those voters to complete the verification procedures employed by defendant board on election day," it reads.

The inactive list was compiled from voter cards that were returned as undeliverable to board headquarters. In the 2000 election in St. Louis, voters on the inactive list were sent to board headquarters to determine their eligibility to vote. Long lines resulted, and Democrats filed suit to keep the polls open later to vote, prompting charges of electoral fraud by Republicans.

U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, who advocated keeping the polls open late, said the Justice Department should demand the elimination of the inactive voter list.

The draft decree suggests beefed-up personnel and phone lines at precincts and headquarters, plus an additional election judge in each precinct "in which inactive voters constitute more than 30 percent of all the voters in the precinct."

It also suggests the board provide alphabetized lists of the entire inactive voters list as well as a citywide list of polling sites for every precinct and two copies of each list for every precinct with the high volume of inactive voters.

In the Missouri primary election held Tuesday, every St. Louis precinct had a copy of the inactive voter list.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay expects to get involved in the talks this weekend, his spokesman said.

Reporter Karen Branch-Brioso
E-mail: kbranch@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 202-298-6880