Free Republic

As he was flying to Boston Saturday for his party's presidential convention, U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. of St. Louis was preparing to make a bit of news back home. Clay, the state's most prominent African-American official, said he was prepared to join in a suit to allow Missouri voters to cast early ballots in the presidential contest.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay appears headed toward a court showdown with Secretary of State Matt Blunt over whether voters will be allowed to cast their ballots in advance of November's general election. City officials say they want to open polling places two weeks early to avoid the long lines and chaos the city experienced at ballot boxes in 2000. Blunt's office said the sudden drive for early voting appears to be "an orchestrated political effort" to encourage a larger turnout of Democratic voters.