Constitution Party candidate can get on ballot for St. Louis County Council seat

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St. Louis County will allow a candidate from the conservative Constitution Party on the April 7 ballot in a special election for a vacant St. Louis County Council seat.

The county agreed to accept prospective candidate Cynthia Redburn’s paperwork to get on the ballot, according to a motion for a consent judgment filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. Steve Stenger vacated the south St. Louis County seat when he became county executive last month.

The judgment, approved Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie White, appears to allow candidates from other minor parties to be placed on the ballot as well. It says the county would be banned from enforcing the charter provision for the special election.

Mary Wall, deputy director of the county Board of Election Commissioners, had refused to accept Redburn’s paperwork, according to a lawsuit signed by attorney David Roland of the Freedom Center of Missouri. Wall cited a charter provision limiting candidates on the ballot to those belonging to “the two parties casting the highest vote for governor in the last election,” said the lawsuit, which was brought by Redburn and other Constitution Party supporters. That limits candidates to nominees from the Democratic or Republican parties.

The lawsuit will continue, however, to decide the issue of whether the provision is unconstitutional, according to White’s order.

The case is Constitution Party of Missouri, et al., v. St. Louis County, et al., 4:15-CV-207.