For many people in the election world, the place to watch yesterday was the state of Wisconsin, which held its hotly-contested, high-turnout presidential primary in the wake of major changes to the state’s election system including introduction of voter ID requirements.
The place that no one was watching until yesterday was the one that had a very bad day: St. Louis County, MO. There, widespread ballot shortages turned the County’s municipal elections into a mess, including court action and calls for state and local investigations. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has more….
There are several factors at work here: first, the fact that the two elections were so close together undoubtedly resulted in divided attention, complicated by the fact that the two elections were being run with different technology. Second, the use of paper ballots left the County little room for error because they, arguably, require the greatest amount of pre-planning due to the need to ensure that there are enough ballots of the right kind in each polling place. Finally, there was error – someone(s) made significant mistakes in printing, allocation and/or delivery. It will be fascinating to see what turns up in the many different calls for an investigation.
[Side note: This is the second story in recent weeks (the first being Cincinnati after an Election Day highway shutdown) where a court order to extend voting came too late to keep most polls open. It’s not clear whether this is a matter of courts not moving quickly enough, delay on the part of litigants seeking the delay or both, but a court order to extend voting after the polls have closed is just about the worst possible outcome because it creates even more work and confusion at a time when neither is helpful.]