By Matt Sepic, KWMU
St. Louis – There will be a strong police presence in St. Louis this Election Day.
Chief Joe Mokwa says about 100 officers will be on election-related duty Tuesday, with more in reserve.
Among other things, they'll keep an eye on poll challengers.
The party workers can challenge individual voters' eligibility, but Mokwa says there are strict limits.
"The people that will be monitoring elections as observers have to be outside the 25 feet, and they can only communicate with a voter that wants to communicate with them," Mokwa said. "No voter is obligated to talk to anybody outside the election process, and we will make sure that nobody can intimidate a voter."
Mokwa says police officers will be posted at election board offices downtown, and will ride with election judges to the polls, but they will not staff each individual polling place.