(St. Louis Public Radio) – Gov. Jay Nixon has cleaned house at the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners, four days after a judge found its employees responsible for absentee ballot problems that led him to schedule a new election in the 78th House District.
“The election board’s failures untied, and set adrift, the tedious and specific statutory process the Missouri legislature previously put in place for absentee voting,” St. Louis circuit judge Rex Burlison wrote in his opinion, released on Friday. “These tedious and specific statutory provisions cannot be ignored, nor circumvented, but must be specifically followed.”
Nixon announced the two new members on Tuesday during a stop in St. Louis. They will replace Democrat Joan Burger, a former circuit judge, and Republican Andrew Schwartz. Both were serving terms that had expired in 2013. Republican attorney Paul Maloney and Democrat Benjamin Phillips will continue to serve.
Nixon said the election challenge, and an earlier open records lawsuit, showed that the board wasn’t following legal processes. Tuesday’s action, he said, is about looking forward, not back.
The new members are:
•Erwin Switzer, Democrat, attorney with Greensfelder Attorneys at Law, past member of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners
•Al Johnson, Republican, attorney, founder and executive director of New Covenant Legal Services.
The nominees may begin serving immediately, but will require Senate confirmation. Lawmakers return to Jefferson City Sept. 14 for the veto session, but the release announcing the appointments did not say whether the Senate would take up the nominations then.
Nixon appointed Burger, Phillips and Schwartz in 2011 at a time when partisan tensions among the board members were running high. Switzer will be the new chairman of the election board; Johnson, the secretary.
Nixon said he was willing to look at whether state law needed to be updated to allow individuals to cast an absentee ballot on electronic machines, but said it was important to restore confidence in the election process first.
“Too many people fought too long and too hard to win the right to vote, and every effort must be made to ensure that no voters are disenfranchised,” he said in a statement. “Voters must have faith and confidence in the integrity of elections, and having these people will help restore that confidence and ensure that everyone can exercise their constitutional right to vote.”
Republished with permission of St. Louis Public Radio: http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/nixon-names-two-new-members-city-elections-board
