Creve Coeur Lawyer Ready If Election Goes Awry

Among those hoping for smooth sailing when it comes to voters' election day experience and the count which ensues is a Creve Coeur man who would likely be called upon to help in the event something goes wrong.

Kevin Rejent, of The Rejent Law Firm, specializes in election law, among other aspects. He started as a volunteer out of law school and has worked with Republican Party legal teams in the years since. In the past, he's also been involved with legal work tied to forming Political Action Committees and campaign compliance issues, although he said he's not affiliated with anything on Tuesday's ballot.  

He's ready to help if needed around St. Louis on election day, but noted that most of the issues that could pop up are "very correctable" ones, like making sure there are enough paper ballots on hand, or making sure that someone who should fill out a provisional ballot doesn't fill out a regular ballot if there are questions over wether someone's voting at the right precinct, or if there are questions about the voter's identity.

The St. Louis area hasn't been immune to issues over the years. In 2000, Republicans fumed when Democrats won a court order to extend voting hours at city precincts. During the August primary, a state representative race was forced into a special election when the wrong ballots ended up at some polling places.

More recently, KMOV reported that a woman attempting to vote absentee last month at the St. Louis County Board of Elections was frustrated when her apparent vote for Mitt Romney twice showed she wanted to select Barack Obama before a poll worker was able to reset the machine.

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that the Republican National Committee wrote officials in six states asking that machines get recalibrated because of similar issues.

Rejent would only be apt to be heavily involved in proceedings in court if the issues emerged in Missouri or Illinois. But he could end up offering advice and serve in a smaller role in the state which seems to be taking up all the campaign oxygen in the last days of the Presidential race.

“I’m trying to avoid having to leave Missouri. I am ready to go if I need to and I think Ohio would be the likely place,” Rejent said, citing family there offering a place to stay.

"But I’m hoping not to have to mobilize. Hopefully everything runs so smoothly and there’s no recounts and I think everybody on all sides would just say vote, have a result we can all accept and move on.”