Live updates as rains drench St. Louis area; St. Charles County off to 'healthy start' on Election Day
St. Charles County polling locations unaffected by flooding
St. Charles County Election Authority Kurt Bahr said there have been no delays in voting in St. Charles County due to the rain or flash flooding.
"All of my polling places are open and all are processing voters," Bahr said. He said Election Day turnout has already eclipsed 10.5% and that the county ultimately had 25% turnout during the no-excuse early voting period and from voters mailing in their ballot.
"That's a pretty healthy start for the day," he said.
Bahr said there was about an hour-long delay at two polling places in St. Charles County — Oakridge Baptist Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in St. Peters — when poll workers arrived and realized they had wrong voting cabinets for the polling place. The cabinets had been delivered incorrectly by a third-party delivery company, but have been switched and voters are casting ballots.
Bahr says that Oakridge Baptist Church has 3,800 voters assigned to it, while the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has about 2,000 voters assigned to it.
"We don't know how many voters were affected, it is hard to know that kind of thing," Bahr said. Voters at the polling places were encouraged to cast their ballot at the St. Charles County Election Authority office, which is about four miles away from both polling places.
"These are two of our smaller precincts, and they are relatively close to one another so we were able to get a team out there to correct the situation fairly quickly," Bahr said. The two precincts are located two-tenths of a mile away from one another in St. Peters, according to maps.
Approximately 31,000 people have already voted today. Turnout is now at 11.5 percent countywide for Election Day. — Ethan Colbert
Jefferson County sheriffs say they are being accused of voter suppression
As roads flood and police direct traffic away from closures, Jefferson County Sheriff's office says drivers are yelling at deputies, suggesting that police were trying to suppress the vote.
"Nothing could be further from the truth," the Sheriff's Office posted on Facebook. "We are trying to keep everyone updated on road closures so you can go around and vote."
Find more flooding updates here.
St. Louis County polling location loses power
St. Louis County Democratic Director of Elections Eric Fey says a Bellefontaine Neighbors polling place lost power today after electrical equipment flooded. The election there is being run on generators.
Rains drench St. Louis region, flooding some roads
After rain through Monday, and storms overnight, several roads in the area were flooded Tuesday morning. Navigate traffic in the St. Louis area here.
MetroBus had to cancel service on several routes:
The 70 Grand route is MetroBus' biggest route, serving about 80,000 riders a month.
The ride service Lyft is offering a 50% discount, up to $10, on rides to the polls. The code VOTE24 must be used.
Uber is also offering a 50% discount on rides to the polls, again capped at $10.
The A. Philip Randolph Institute is offering free rides to the polls in St. Louis and St. Louis County; call 314-562-0411 to request a ride.
Before polls open, voters huddle in rain
As a steady rain fell an hour before the polls opened, 30 people were in line outside Grant's View Branch library in St. Louis County. The earliest ones huddled beneath an overhang to stay dry.
Poll hours, candidates and issues on the Election Day ballot
Election officials expect the overall turnout for Tuesday's presidential vote to hit 73% across Missouri — and possibly higher in some parts of the St. Louis area. The polls in Missouri and Illinois will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The estimates include those who already have cast absentee ballots, including thousands who streamed into polling places Monday on the last day of the state's early voting period that began two weeks ago.
In addition to choosing a new president, voters are deciding the winner of a big-spending U.S. Senate race between Josh Hawley and Lucas Kunce, picking a new governor (Mike Kehoe vs. Crystal Quade) and filling four other statewide posts.
There also are six statewide ballot issues, with the most campaign spending on measures to allow abortion , legalize sports betting and establish a new casino in the Lake of the Ozarks area . Another measure calls for increasing the state minimum wage .
Various U.S. House and state legislative races also are on the ballot.
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's office said the expected 73% statewide turnout would exceed the percentages for the last two presidential elections. About 70% of Missouri's registered voters took part in 2020 and nearly 67% in 2016.
In St. Louis County, Missouri's most populous county, election officials were predicting a total of 75% to 79%.
Rick Stream, one of the county's two election directors, said that would come close to the all-time high percentage for the county of 79.3% four years ago.
St. Charles County's election director, Kurt Bahr, on Monday predicted a total turnout of 75%, close to the November 2020 turnout of 76%.
As for early voting, which was begun by the Missouri Legislature in 2022, Stream said more than 12,100 people already had cast ballots on Monday by 1 p.m. That brought the county total for this election to more than 212,000, he said.
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