Soon after the polls opened this morning, people started showing up at St. Louis city election headquarters complaining about not getting to cast “real” ballots.

Some said they tried to vote but were told they weren’t registered and turned away. Some said they recently moved into the city and their names did not appear on the city voter rolls. Others said they mailed in registration cards, although some admitted it was after the registration deadline.

State law allows anybody with registration problems to fill out a provisional ballot. But for the ballot to count, the person must later prove he or she had a right to vote at that polling place. With traditional or “real” ballots, voters are already considered properly registered.

To field the complaints, election headquartesr workers handed forms to those complaining, and they were told to ask a judge to intervene. At least 18 people did. Two judges heard the cases. But in no cases could they require poll workers to hand out traditional ballots to people.

That’s because a relatively new state law took away their power to order voters to get traditional ballots.

The judges then told the election board there was little they could do for voters, other than tell poll workers to give people provisional ballots.

Just after noon, a city election worker stepped into the bureau’s entry way, and told a group of 30 or 40 that city judges would not see them.

“The judge is not accepting any more court orders,” the worker said.

One of the people in the lobby asked if she could vote provisionally.

“It’s up to you,” the elections worker said. “If you want to do that, you can do that.”

Jennifer Vogel had hoped to avoid that.

She was among the 70 to 100 people who had crowded into the headquarters by noon. They had each been directed to take a number.

Vogel said she’d registered before the deadline and called the elections bureau in early October to ask why she hadn’t gotten a letter. Because it was past the registration deadline, a worker told her she’d have to be seen by a judge on election day. She showed up at 8, she said, so she could do just that.