ACLU VOTING RIGHTS CASE RESOLVED
St. Louis, September 19, 2002 -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri announced today that it has resolved its long-standing class action lawsuit against the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners concerning voting processes and procedures that resulted in the disenfranchisement of hundreds of St. Louis voters during the November 2000 elections.
"The Election Board has agreed to take the measures that are necessary to ensure that eligible voters won't be turned away at the polls," said Matt LeMieux, executive director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, which filed the class action lawsuit in 2001 on behalf of all voters in St. Louis, and on behalf of a sub-class of all African American voters, who, the lawsuit claimed, were disproportionately impacted by the faulty voting procedures.
In a consent decree signed with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Board agreed to take numerous steps to clean up the City's inactive voter list that was the source of many Election Day problems. The Board agreed to take measures to facilitate voting at precincts and reduce the numbers of voters at board headquarters, including election judges specifically to deal with voters on the inactive voter list, copies of the list at all precincts, provisional voting and other measures. The Board indicated that it is committed to eliminating the inactive voter list as soon as possible and to providing laptop computers at precincts.
Additionally, in negotiations with the ACLU, the Election Board described measures it has implemented to ensure the accuracy of voter lists, more frequent and thorough training of election judges, processes to recruit more election judges, and its efforts to ensure that its polling places are 100% handicap accessible. Training of election judges now emphasizes that photo identification is not required to vote.
The ACLU's lawsuit focused on flawed practices including: the use of flawed inactive voter lists; inadequately staffed polling places; inadequate voting equipment; inadequate training of election judges; lack of sample balloting machines; lack of available assistance to voters who need help completing a ballot; and improper identification requirements.
"We obviously will be watching closely this November to see what impact the consent decree has on the ability of St. Louisans to cast their votes," added LeMieux.