Jo Mannies, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
July 26, 2001
Page A1
Political Correspondent Tim Bryant Of The Post-Dispatch Contributed To This Report.
Secretary of State Matt Blunt is calling on authorities to punish those responsible for at least
1,384 ballots that he
says were cast illegally on Nov. 7 in St. Louis and St. Louis County.
"It's my hope that all intentional violators will be punished," Blunt said at a news conference
Wednesday at his St.
Louis office. He released copies of his 47-page report detailing the alleged illegal votes that he
said "cast a real
shadow over the elections process."
The key culprits, he added, are the voters who cast those suspect ballots. "It is absolutely
necessary that we punish
some people," he said.
But state Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, said he planned to initiate
actions against
judges in St. Louis and St. Louis County who issued court orders allowing 1,233 of those
alleged illegal votes.
The judges are accused of granting the orders to people who didn't meet the requirements set
under state law. The
judges say they complied with state law.
Blunt declared that the additional illegal votes came from:
* 114 felons who were improperly allowed to vote.
* At least 23 people who appeared to have voted twice.
* 14 illegal ballots apparently cast in the name of dead voters.
He raised questions about 138 other votes, because of suspicions that additional people voted
twice or used
fraudulent addresses.
The number of alleged illegal votes wouldn't have altered the results in several close Missouri
contests Nov. 7. Blunt
said his aim was to protect the sanctity of future elections.
U.S. Attorney Ray Gruender said his office will review Blunt's allegations and is sending a
copy of Blunt's report to the
U.S. Justice Department. Gruender's office is in the middle of a grand jury investigation into
other, unrelated
allegations of attempts to illegally register city voters.
Blunt also plans to renew a push for legislative changes that failed last session, such as a
uniform statewide voting
system for casting and counting ballots.
Kinder said election reform will be "at the top of our priority list" in the GOP-controlled state
Senate next year.
In the Democratic-controlled House, where Blunt's bill died last session, Speaker Jim Kreider
said he's forming a
special elections committee to begin discussions this fall on cost-effective ways to improve
elections.
The issue last year was largely the $50 million price tag, said Kreider, D-Nixa. "We just don't
have the money."
Most of Blunt's accusations of wrongdoing center on existing laws that he says need to be
properly enforced.
For example, 45 election judges staffing the city's polls on Nov. 7 weren't registered voters as
required by law, he
said. And 79 city voters cast ballots even though they were registered from addresses that the
city Election Board
had "verified to be vacant lots," Blunt's report said.
As for the disputed court orders, Blunt alleged that there was "a coordinated effort" to grant
the orders to people who
didn't qualify.
While Blunt declined to identify who did the coordinating, the report's implied targets were
Democrats.
The report attacks the Democrats' effort on Nov. 7 to keep area polls open an extra three
hours. Blunt said
Wednesday that their suit wasn't illegal, but that Judge Evelyn Baker acted improperly in
granting the request. A state
appeals court shut down the polls 45 minutes later.
U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr., among those who filed the suit, said Wednesday that Blunt's
report "smacked of
politics." Clay said he also opposed vote fraud but was disturbed that Blunt's report failed to
address allegations that
thousands of legitimately registered city voters were denied ballots because of the city's
"inactive voter list." Those
voters had to get approval from Election Board officials before they could vote and jammed
the headquarters that
election night.
"That's why I went to court that day to keep the polls open, and I'd do it again," Clay said.
Meanwhile, Blunt won strong praise from Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo.
"This report confirms the sad history of tolerance for vote fraud in St. Louis city and
county," Bond said. "I have
introduced legislation at the federal level and urge Missouri lawmakers to use this report to
draft appropriate
safeguards into Missouri state law."
