EAST ST. LOUIS • The next votes counted by the East St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners, an enduring political artifact from the 19th century, may put it out of business.

That's if the controversial operation is allowed to count those votes at all.

For years, St. Clair County power brokers watched late into election nights as heavily Democratic totals rolling in from East St. Louis helped tip the scales their way. Sometimes the East St. Louis outcome was not even announced until the next day, although timeliness improved in recent years.

"They'd figure out how many votes they needed, and went out and got them," claimed Matt Hawkins, an East St. Louis resident who decided to set his criticism into motion.

He successfully obtained enough petition signatures to put the proposed dissolution of the board on the March 20 primary election ballot. If it passes, vote counting will thereafter be handled by the county clerk, as with the rest of St. Clair County.

"I'm trying to create a first-class city," said Hawkins, who described himself as an activist and said he formerly worked in investment banking. "The board was created by the industrial captains of the day to control elections, and it's always been a point of contention."

James Lewis, the longtime executive director of the board, did not respond to requests for comment.

The board did resist the measure, by unsuccessfully challenging the validity of signatures on Hawkins' petitions.

On Wednesday, Hawkins filed a motion in St. Clair County Circuit Court, asking a judge for an injunction to stop the board from counting the March ballots because of the possible conflict of interest.

Politics is one issue on the table; money is another.

The board gets an annual allotment of $400,000 from the city and $112,000 from the county.

"The city must cut its expenses, and this is a good place to start," Hawkins said.

Bob Delaney, the St. Clair County clerk, said his office could run the added polls for about $50,000 per election. "We'd have some initial added costs from buying voting machines to match our system, but in the end we would save money," he said.

Delaney, a Democrat, added that he doesn't have an official position on the referendum's outcome.

The election board was created in 1886, when East St. Louis was becoming an industrial boomtown. Now, critics say it is an expensive relic the beleaguered community cannot afford.

It has survived decades of negative headlines — from allegations of premarked ballots to padded voter rolls and allowing the dead to vote.

Most Illinois elections are run by county clerks, but there are separate boards in some other cities, including Chicago and Peoria. Before establishing its own, East St. Louis sent officials to Chicago to study how it was done.

Missouri, with elections run at the county level, has only one such entity, in Kansas City, according to its secretary of state's office. The city of St. Louis also functions as a county.

East St. Louis peaked in residents and industrial might after World War II. Its population shot from 15,169 in 1890 to a high of 82,295 in 1950. Plagued by poverty and turmoil, the count declined to 27,006 in the most recent census.

But it remains an important ingredient in county politics, with voters heavily favoring the Democratic establishment.

It also has more voters registered than residents over 18, which underscores Hawkins' complaint that it fails to purge the names of people who moved or died. The census lists 19,400 residents over 18, the minimum voting age, but the board had 19,471 voters as of last month.

Hawkins estimated that it should have about 12,000, based on a census report that puts the national voter registration average at 60 percent.

Over the years, East St. Louis has seen many of its institutions stripped of power. City government spending is monitored by a state watchdog panel. Last year, the state took over day-to-day operations of the school district.

Mayor Alvin Parks said the city should not surrender any more independence. He said that he recognizes the cost saving and "that there are those who have gotten into trouble" with voting irregularities. "But on a whole, they have been a positive part of East St. Louis," he insisted.

Parks said it comes down to 'service, accessibility and convenience." He said residents should control their own elections and have better access to voting.

Delaney said that if the board goes away, he will set up an early voting site in East St. Louis for the residents' convenience.