A compelling read in today’s paper visits Kirkwood on the city’s first council meeting since the fatal Feb. 7 shooting.

The meeting was filled with tensions as residents decried the decision to continue with an election for mayor that will feature only one name on the ballot - Councilman Art McDonnell.

The name of slain Councilman Connie Karr was removed from the ballot for mayor by court order earlier this month.

A group calling itself Kirkwood Coming Together for a Brighter Future is irked by the decision to continue with the election, claiming the council is using the shooting to consolidate their political power.

But, according to today’s story, Steven Garrett, attorney for the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners, said it appears the city has no choice but to press on with the scheduled election.

State law allows for an election to be postponed in the event of a “disaster,” Garrett said. A candidate’s death, no matter how tragic, does not meet the legal definition, he said.

But is that accurate?

The statute in question, state code section 115.024, allows a local election board to lobby a panel of appeals court judges to postpone an election. Here’s how the law defines disaster:

…any catastrophic or natural disaster, statewide or nationwide emergency, man-made disaster, civil disorder, insurgency, bioterrorism attack, terrorist attack, or enemy attack.

Would a deadly rampage fit that description?

UPDATE: Garrett called me this afternoon to clarify the Election Board’s stance. The law, as he sees it, does more than require simply the occurrence of a disaster to postpone an election.

The event, Garrett says, has to actually interfere with the ability to hold the election on the scheduled day — like a storm or terrorist attack that would keep voters from getting to the polls.

“It doesn’t matter how horrible it is,” Garrett says. “The question is does it preclude you from having election.”