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Originally published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) on 8/3/2004

Ineligible person's vote voids election in Pine Lawn

A St. Louis County judge has thrown out the results of the April 6 election for the office of 3rd Ward aldermen in Pine Lawn - a race that ended with a one-vote margin - because a convicted felon cast a vote.

Associate Circuit Judge Barbara Ann Crancer last week ordered the Board of Election Commissioners to have a special election after it was determined that Carl Lee Christian cast a deciding ballot in the election April 6. In that election, incumbent Johnson White Sr. edged Cheris D. Metts 40 votes to 39.

According to court records, Christian still was on 30 days of supervised probation after pleading guilty to a felony charge in St. Louis on March 6.

The law says that no person shall be entitled to vote while confined under a sentence of imprisonment or while on probation or parole after conviction of a felony until discharged from the probation or parole.

The special election is set for Oct. 5.

Metts, 55, a homemaker and mother of four sons, said she was looking forward to campaigning again.

"I'm happy because that sort of thing has been going on for years in Pine Lawn elections," she said. "But no one has been close enough to file a challenge. I was the first to do that."

Metts filed the petition right after the election. It is the third time she has run against White, who is a minister at Monumental Baptist Church in St. Louis.

Said White: "I don't have any problem with it."

Metts said she had been on the lookout for problems and legal maneuvers in the campaign. She believes the next election will be different. "It will be fair because it's court-ordered," she said.