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St. Louis now has 50,000 voters on its 'inactive voter' list, after adding 20,000

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 17, 2012 - The St. Louis Election Board has added about 20,000 more city voters to the board’s “inactive list,” which potentially could slow down balloting for the Nov. 6 election.

All told, city Democratic elections director Mary Wheeler-Jones said the list of the city's inactive voters now has about 50,000 names. That’s just over 20 percent of the city’s roughly 240,000 registered voters, according to the Missouri secretary of state's office.

That’s also roughly the number on the city’s inactive list in November 2000. That set off a chain of events resulting in a court battle on election night between the presidential campaigns, a state probe and a federal lawsuit.

Federal officials later determined that an untold number of legitimate city voters were improperly prevented from voting. The inactive list got most of the blame.

A voter on the city’s “inactive list” is not on the board’s regular voter rolls and generally is directed to another table at the polling place, where election officials can then check the inactive list to see if the person is on it. If they are, the person is then allowed to vote.

People are added to the city’s inactive list if postcards sent to the address on file were returned as “undeliverable” because the person did not seem to live there anymore.

Latest postcard voter canvass prompts additions

Wheeler-Jones denied that the fattened list would create problems, although it may take longer for some voters to cast ballots if they turn up on the inactive list.

She did call for city residents to verify their voting status now – and update their address, if they have moved -- to avoid confusion or delays in November.

The city’s “inactive list’’ is searchable online.

If people are unsure of their voter status, they should consider filling out a new voter registration card, Wheeler-Jones said. Such cards are available at vehicle license offices and at public library branches.

The voter registration deadline is Oct. 10 for voters to cast ballots in the Nov. 6 election.

Wheeler-Jones said that that the bulk of the additional 20,000 were added to the list by June after two postcard canvasses.

The Election Board conducted the postcard canvasses earlier this year, Wheeler-Jones said.  Postcards were sent to the addresses listed for all city registered voters. If the cards were returned as undeliverable, Wheeler-Jones said a second round of cards was sent to those addresses. If they also were returned, then the person was moved to the inactive list.

She said she was confident that many of the 20,000 new people added to the inactive list actually no longer lived in the city and had moved elsewhere.  But in the past, such canvasses often have shifted some voters to the inactive list in error; some affected voters have blamed mail delivery by the post office.                      

Wheeler-Jones said the the larger inactive list did not cause any significant polling-place problems during the Aug. 7 primary. She cited the fact that 38 provisional ballots were cast citywide.

Provisional ballots are offered when a person’s status as a registered voter cannot be verified on Election Day. If election officials subsequently determine that the person was a legitimate voter, the provisional ballot counts.

If the person was not properly registered, the ballot is not counted. However, Wheeleer-Jones said the Election Board uses the information collected in filing the provisional ballot to register the person.

Chaos at city polls in 2000

In November 2000, thousands of would-be St. Louis voters were turned away from their polling places because they weren't on the regular voter rolls. Because phone lines to city election officials were jammed, such voters were required to go to the Election Board’s headquarters downtown to see if they were on the “inactive list."

The crowds packing the headquarters caused chaos and prompted efforts by national and local Democrats to ask judges to extend the city’s voting hours. Republicans then filed appeals that closed down voting about 45 minutes after the usual poll-closing time of 7 p.m.

At the time, there also were no such thing as provisional ballots.

The investigation by then-Secretary of State Matt Blunt resulted in allegations that more than 1,000 people in St. Louis and St. Louis County were improperly allowed to cast ballots via court orders issued Election Day in November 2000.

But the federal probe, which prompted the Justice Department lawsuit, alleged that the city’s inactive list had been handled improperly and resulted potentially in thousands of legitimate city voters being turned away.

In 2000, the local polling places did not have copies of the inactive list. The settlement of the federal suit included a requirement that copies of the inactive list be at each polling place. Wheeler-Jones said that was the case on Aug. 7, and that the copies will be in place on Nov. 6.

Jo Mannies is a freelance journalist and former political reporter at St. Louis Public Radio.