ST. LOUIS (AP) - State and local officials on Wednesday demanded to know why nearly 8 percent of St. Louis County precincts ran out of ballots and some voters were turned away during municipal elections.
Secretary of State Jason Kander told the News Tribune his office already started reviewing Tuesday's election problems, "to determine what the St. Louis County Election Board did wrong in this election and give them advice on how to insure that they don't allow this to happen in the future. It is inexcusable that St. Louis County prevented eligible voters from casting a ballot."
The St. Louis County Council and a Missouri House committee also announced they will be scheduling public hearings in the near future.
St. Louis County Democratic elections director Eric Fey said shortages occurred on Tuesday in 63 precincts that required ballots for multiple jurisdictions, such as school board and municipal government elections. Those polling places require two different styles of ballots.
Somehow, he said, the number of ballots needed for each style was reversed. The result was too many ballots in some styles, too few in others.
The county's top two elections officials agreed to testify before the Missouri House Urban Issues Committee. Chairman Courtney Curtis, D-Ferguson, said he initially asked both Fey and Republican director Gary Fuhr testify today, but they requested a delay to allow more time to gather information on what went wrong.
"Mistakes like this should never occur in Missouri elections and must not be allowed to happen again," Curtis said in a statement.
The County Council plans a public hearing where election board members will testify as to what went wrong.
No specific dates have been set yet for either hearing.
Fey said the election board is also performing its own internal investigation.
It was uncertain how many voters were turned away because of the shortage.
The election board sought an extension of voting hours to 9 p.m. instead of the normal 7 p.m. closing time at affected precincts. A judge denied the request. The Missouri Court of Appeals reversed the ruling and allowed polls to stay open until 9 p.m., but that ruling came several minutes after the polls had first closed. It wasn't clear how many people voted during the extended hours.
Neither County Executive Steve Stenger nor the County Council has direct control of the election board.
The governor appoints members of the county election board. The board then selects two directors - one Democrat and one Republican, with the lead director from the same party as the governor - currently Fey, a Democrat.
Gov. Jay Nixon called the problems "inexcusable."
State Sen. Will Kraus, R-Lee's Summit, is running to be Missouri's next secretary of state and said Wednesday the election board members should resign.
"Missouri voters deserve a better election process, plain and simple," Kraus said.
Jay Ashcroft, a St. Louis County Republican who also is running to succeed Kander as secretary of state, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee both issued news releases Tuesday and Wednesday, blaming Kander for the problems.
Ashcroft on Wednesday called the situation "gross incompetence" by Kander, "our state's chief elections official."
Kander, a Democrat, is running for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Roy Blunt, and the NRSC said Wednesday the St. Louis County situation happened because of "Kander's utter failure as Missouri's chief elections officer to ensure voters could cast ballots (Tuesday)."
Kander said: "They are clearly clueless about how elections are run. ... The state doesn't run local elections - there's an element of local control, here.
"Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know the law and should learn it before launching attacks on my office."
Bob Watson of the News Tribune staff contributed information used in this story.