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Council tables request to destroy election records after public comments; discusses $57,141.56 election grant
Summary
Public commenters urged the council not to approve destruction of election records from 2020–2023; the council voted to table the register's record-destruction request and heard from Election Director Kurt Barr about a $57,141.56 grant to update poll pads and maintain voter lists.
St. Charles County Council voted to table a request by the registrar to destroy certain election records from recent election cycles after multiple members of the public urged the council to preserve records tied to the 2020–2023 period.
Public commenters raised legal and transparency concerns. Jim Kozlowski presented federal-code language and urged the county to “play it safe,” reading from a printed citation he placed on the podium. He said the voting system “shall produce a permanent paper record with a manual audit capacity for such system,” and emphasized the word “permanent.”
Several other speakers urged the council not to destroy records while new federal and state officials review past elections. Allie (Allie) Grama told the council: “If we delete these records now, we're slamming the door on the ability to uncover the truth.” Teresa Linsnick and other speakers also asked the council to retain records and consider forensic reviews and voter-roll cleaning.
The council discussed the technical difference between tabulator tapes and ballots and questioned what documents were slated for destruction. Election Director Kurt Barr told the council the county follows the statutory process for record destruction and explained the proposed use of a secretary-of-state grant. He said the annual HAVA grant is typically used for voter-list maintenance and hardware upgrades and added: “What we'd like to use it for this year is, list maintenance to keep our voter rolls as clean and accurate as possible, as well as replacing some of our older iPads.” He differentiated poll pads (used for voter check-in) from tabulators and noted the county’s poll books had EAC certification from the vendor used.
After discussion, a motion to table the register’s destruction request passed; the chair announced: “So the register will be tabled until the next week.”
During introductions, the council also heard Bill 53‑71, an ordinance authorizing acceptance of $57,141.56 from the Missouri secretary of state for an election-efficiency grant and amending the election service fund budget. Council members asked for clarification about the iPad purchases and whether the secretary of state's policy direction would change; staff and the election director said they would provide further details before final action.
