ST. CHARLES COUNTY, MO – The St. Charles County Election Authority will continue with early no-excuse absentee voting as scheduled Thursday, Oct. 31, despite a lawsuit raising questions about the presence of poll workers and challengers.
The Election Authority office was made aware late Wednesday of an attempt to obtain a temporary restraining order on early voting in the county, with an order to appear for a court hearing Friday, Nov. 1.
“We will follow any court order that may or may not result from the hearing on Friday,” says Kurt Bahr, St. Charles County Director of Elections. “There is no injunction to stop early voting at this time, so our voting locations will be opened as originally planned Thursday.”
On Wednesday, Travis Heins, a Republican committeeman representing District 7 in St. Charles County, alleged Bahr prevented him from being a watcher or challenger. Heins argues challengers and watchers, according to state law, have the right to be in polling places whenever in person absentee ballots are being prepared for counting, or counted.
KMOX legal analyst Brad Young says "the plaintiff is arguing that he cannot be denied the right to be a poll watcher and he cites statutes to back up his position. One thing that is interesting though is that when those statutes were initially drafted all elections were on one day and one day only. There was no multi-day elections, there was no early voting, there was none of the processes that we have today for people to vote before the actual election."
Judge Matthew Thornhill issued a temporary injunction in response to the lawsuit. A court hearing is set for Friday morning.
Current Voting Hours
Election Authority office (397 Turner Blvd, St. Peters)
8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 31-Saturday, Nov. 2
8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday, Nov. 4
Curbside voting available. Element Church (100 Mall Parkway, Wentzville)
9 a.m.-3 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 31; Friday, Nov. 1; Monday, Nov. 4
Curbside voting not available.