A New Day for the St. Louis Board of Elections?

While I am told that under the tutelage of out-going Election Board Chairman, Ed Martin, the St. Louis City Board of Elections made numerous improvements over how elections are run in our city. Not being aware of his predecessors’ efficacy, I have nothing to compare his job against. But, I will say that the most recent round of elections went smoothly – quick results and no allegations of fraud. Further, the Board’s efforts to inform voters about the new electronic voting methods and the up-coming ID requirements in November were a pleasant surprise.

The surprise in the Boards’ ability to effectively communicate information comes from review of its extremely poor website. While it is cumbersome and unwelcoming, I did not realize exactly how bad it was until I visited the website for Clay County, Missouri. Last week, I needed to find out when a particular candidate ran for a specific office. (In all honesty, neither my mother nor I could remember when she ran for Prosecutor.)

I went to the website for the Clay County, Missouri Board of Elections, but found that the records only go back to 2000, which is the same as the Missouri Ethics Commission. But while at the site, I took a few minutes to browse around the well-designed interface that had much information to offer. The website is heads and tails above what we have in St. Louis.

Not having the information I needed, I called the Clay County Board, and was greeted by a warm, friendly voice. I told the lady what information I was looking for, and what information I had to narrow down the search. She asked for my name and contact information and said that she would call me back if she could find the information. After having delt with our elections Board in the past, I was expecting either not to receive a call or one days later with no information. I was again pleasantly surprised to receive a call less than 10-minutes later with exactly the information I needed. No attitude, no misinformation, just friendly and helpful.

So, I am hoping that the new Chairwoman will take the enhancements to the process of voting, and apply those enhancements to their ability to disseminate information on the web and through their staff.