Matt Blunt: Unfit for office

It’s always gratifying when a newspaper displays the courage of its convictions. Such a moment occurred with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s editorial denunciation of Matt Blunt, alleged Missouri secretary of state and candidate for governor. This blog has previously documented Blunt’s questionable tactics and poor stewardship of the election process in this state. Now the P-D slams Blunt for what should be, must be the final straw for fair-minded Missouri voters (link defunct; article now tucked behind the paper’s subscription wall):

In his public statements and official actions, Secretary of State Matt Blunt has undermined people’s confidence in the fairness of next week’s election in Missouri.

His latest comment, made this week, was that there is nothing illegal or even wrong about private voter registration groups failing to send in registration cards they had promised to mail to election officials. He was reacting to reports that a group funded by the Republican National Committee had destroyed Democratic voter registration forms in Nevada, Oregon and Minnesota.

Mr. Blunt seems not to have talked to his own general counsel, Terry Jarrett. Mr. Jarrett said this week that “in certain circumstances, egregious circumstances, there might be some general fraud laws that would apply to these folks if (they are) doing something fraudulently” in failing to turn in registration cards.

Chuck Hatfield, a Democratic election lawyer, went step a further. He said that destroying voter registrations “may constitute an election offense in that it is impeding or preventing…a person’s vote.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Blunt’s office has been giving St. Louis election officials questionable advice that could hold down the vote in the Democratic stronghold of St. Louis city.

Voters who show up at the polls without personal identification and who don’t want to go back home to get it, may be given the option of voting a provisional ballot. Gary Stoff, the Republican director of the St. Louis Election Board, initially said these voters would be told that the ballot “may or may not” be counted. In truth, however, election officials will not count the ballots, he said.

Mr. Stoff acknowledged that “the voter would think there is at least the possibility that that ballot is going to be counted,” even though it won’t be. But, he said, the board was just following instructions from Mr. Blunt’s office.

Late Thursday, however, in response to questions from the Post-Dispatch editorial page, Mr. Stoff reversed himself and said these would-be voters will be told the truth: Their ballots won’t count.

These are only the latest examples of Blunt’s attempts to game the system against voters - clear partisan bias that has already earned Missouri unwanted national attention. So endangered are the coming state elections that the P-D has taken the strong step of calling for Blunt to recuse himself from current election issues and hand decision-making authority over to the Republican and Democratic co-directors of elections. Failing that, says the P-D, Blunt should immediately move to reverse the effects of his damaging and misleading instructions to election officials around the state.

The possibility that Blunt will take either step is so remote as to be nonexistent. Fortunately, we voters of Missouri have a special veto power available to us, veto power we should exercise. Matt Blunt has demonstrated repeatedly that he is not fit even for the position he holds now, let alone the highest office in the state. Missouri voters should deny Matt Blunt their votes on November 2.

Similar posts:
What’s in a name?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted for front page design
The Lumiere Place-Dispatch
At the Post-Dispatch, Drudge equals social networking
Paging Harry Levins