CLAYTON • With a change in leadership on the horizon, the St. Louis County Election Commission is taking preliminary steps toward resolving a pattern of missteps that has marred countywide voting twice in under 18 months.
At separate meetings Tuesday afternoon, the commission and the County Council gave voice to the sense of urgency for change at the beleaguered agency as it prepares for the most important date on the electoral calendar: the Nov. 8 presidential balloting.
One key figure, Republican Election Director Gary Fuhr, will be absent as the election office enters the fall election season and, prior to that, the August primary to pick the local candidates who will appear on November general election tickets.
The commission early Tuesday afternoon accepted the retirement of Fuhr, a former FBI agent and state representative who has occupied the post since 2012.
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Fuhr stressed the decision was not connected to the issues that plagued voting at over 60 county polling places in the April 5 municipal elections. Similar problems arose in November 2014 general election.
Those irregularities prompted the commissioners on Tuesday to petition for special elections to recast the votes in the races for Berkeley mayor and an aldermanic contest in Sunset Hills.
“It was going to happen sometime this year anyway,” Fuhr said of his retirement. “It was just a matter of when.”
The May 20 retirement of Fuhr will usher in what commissioners expect will be a host of changes at county election headquarters in Maplewood.
Chief among those is a proposal that merit, as opposed to political patronage, be the basis for hiring election office employees.
“To the average citizen, the idea that most of the employees (were hired) because of someone they know shakes their faith in the system,” said Commissioner John Maupin.
The adoption of a civil service standard for election employees will require the approval of the state Legislature.
Maupin is also seeking to strengthen the system of checking and double-checking ballots prior to election day.
Democratic Election Director Eric Fey has acknowledged that a breakdown in the monitoring system failed to catch a database glitch that led to the “very unfortunate series of events” that unfolded on April 5.
Fey recently completed an unpaid two-week suspension for his handling of last month’s election.
A proposal that polling places have punch cards and other technology on the premises at all times will also be considered by the commission at its June meeting.
The county was forced to use paper ballots in April because the date of the Missouri presidential primary, March 15, didn’t allow enough time to recalibrate electronic voting mechanisms.
To that end, the commission at its next meeting will also consider recommending that the state Legislature move the date of the presidential primary to early March to allow for recalibration prior to the April municipal elections.
Fuhr blamed the three-week turnaround between the primary and municipal balloting for “the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever had to deal with it.”
Fuhr and Fey began the afternoon outlining for the board of election commissioners why Berkeley residents deserve another opportunity to cast a vote in a mayoral race that ended with incumbent Theodore Hoskins defeating his closest opponent, Babatunde Deinbo, by 13 votes.
Fey said a review of ballot shortages at Berkeley precincts coupled with Hoskins’ narrow margin of victory warranted a revote in the North County community.
The commission, in response to issues raised by Frank Hardy, who lost a race for a seat on the Sunset Hills Board of Aldermen, voted to seek a redo of first ward balloting in that municipality as well.
A date will be set after the St. Louis County Circuit Court acts on a petition seeking the special elections.
After the election board meeting, Fuhr and Fey headed to a County Council hearing into the circumstances that Republican Councilwoman Colleen Wasinger characterized as “completely unacceptable.”
The council greeted the election directors with mild criticism peppered with praise for their response to withering criticism on election day and its aftermath.
“You guys stood up and took everything,” Democratic South County Councilman Kevin O’Leary told Fuhr and Fey.
Republican Councilman Mark Harder called the responses during the 45-minute hearing short on specifics.
“I wanted them to let us know who was responsible, but that didn’t come up,” the West County lawmaker said.