The Missouri council of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) today called on Republican election director Scott Leiendecker to resign from the St. Louis City election board.

“Recent letters signed and sent by Leiendecker had the sole intent of causing eligible new voters to think that they have done something wrong or that they need to meet some higher standard in order to vote,” wrote AFSCME council director Ken Jacob in a press release today.

“It is clear that this was a transparent attempt to suppress the number of St. Louis citizens who go to the polls,” said Jacob.

“Hundreds of the public servants whom we at AFSCME represent live in St. Louis, and many of them may have been disenfranchised or needlessly confused about their rights because of the acts of Leiendecker as director of elections,” Jacob added.

Last week, Leiendecker and his Democratic counterpart, Mary Wheeler-Jones, sent a letter to thousands of people whose names were on suspect voter registration cards turned in by ACORN. Those cards, according to Leiendecker, are now at the U.S. Attorney’s office being investigated for fraud.

He said the letter was meant to insure that no legitimate voter would go unregistered simply because their card got mixed up with those suspected of being fraudulent.

“There will not be one living person turned away on Election Day,” Leiendecker told PUB DEF this evening. He said the problem is that many of the names on those suspect cards, and therefore who the Board’s letter was addressed to, are not alive. Many, he said, are dead, or underage, or clearly had their signatures forged.

The U.S. Attorney is currently investigating these allegations. Leiendecker said he nor Wheeler-Jones have any intentions of resigning ahead of Election Day.