Election Law @ Moritz

Recent Opinion Articles

Archives: by Date | by Author
Edward B. Foley
Free & Fair is a collection of writings by Edward B. Foley, one of the nation's preeminent experts on election law.

Information and Analysis

Confusion over ballot envelopes from St. Louis County

Print Page

February 26, 2009

Yesterday afternoon, Coleman attorney Ben Ginsberg gave a press conference in front a display of St. Louis County absentee ballot envelopes that he believed were defective resulting in illegally cast ballots. In total, he alleged that, according to the court’s definition of legally cast ballots, around 300 ballots from the county may have been illegally cast and included in the count. However, new information suggests that these ballots may actually have been cast in compliance with the court's view of what is legal but that they were separated from the actual envelopes in which they were returned and placed in regular absentee ballot envelopes (blank ones) for storage. St. Louis County officials claim not to have known the ballot records were being used in litigation. It is not clear why the ballots were ever transferred to blank absentee envelopes in the first place or if the original mailing envelopes were retained. See the Bemidji Pioneer story here and our case page here.