Early voting is back on in St. Charles on Thursday

ST. CHARLES COUNTY — The top elections official here said that polls will be open for early voting Thursday morning, despite a request for a temporary restraining order filed by a local Republican committeeman.

St. Charles County Elections Director Kurt Bahr said his legal counsel had reviewed the court documents, and said voting could continue.

“This is not an injunction. It is not a court order. It is a request for an injunction,” Bahr said late Wednesday. “The polls will be open tomorrow. Nothing will change.”

Travis Allen Heins, of St. Peters, filed for the injunction on Wednesday, saying that official “watchers” or “challengers” were wrongly being kept from observing inside polling places during early voting in St. Charles County.

His legal filing requests that early voting not be allowed to continue without watchers or challengers. Such observers had been disallowed by Bahr, because he said they’re only allowed in when ballots are being prepared for counting, or being counted, on election day.

But Bahr said watchers and challengers would be allowed, if required by a judge, into the early voting polling places to observe.

Heins believes that election watchers and challengers should be allowed inside early voting polling places, because ballots are counted as they are fed into the voting machines.

Heins said his restraining order has been granted by St. Charles County Circuit Judge Daniel Pelikan. But Heins said he did not mean to block early voting and has no suspicion of wrongdoing. He just wanted to be there to observe voting.

“I have no intention of interrupting any type of voting,” he said.

Pelikan could not be reached for comment.

St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann said late Wednesday that the county has not been served. He said he, also, had talked to county attorneys, and expected early voting to continue Thursday.

The area has been a hot spot of early voting, with more than 70,000 votes cast by Monday.