A Partisan Primary For Just 341 Voters

In Tuesdays primary 32,196 out of 222,145 registered voters cast ballots.  That is only 14.49%.

The break out among the parties tells the reason why we should just dispense with partisan politics and just go non-partisan.  98.9% (31,855) took Democratic ballots.  The remaining 341 ballots (0.0105913%) were split among Greens, Libertarians and Republicans.  Of those only the Greens had a contested primary!

A mere 168 people voted in the Green primary for Mayor.  51 for Don De Vivo and 117 for Elston McCowan.  These 168 voters represent 0.005218% of those that voted Tuesday and 0.0007562% of registered voters.  Is partisanship at the municipal level worth the extra time and money for a primary and general so that a minor party can hold a primary?

Denise Watson-Wesley Coleman received the fewest votes in the Democratic primary for Mayor but she managed to get 2,047 votes. That is nearly 20 times as many as McCowan.

As a city we have no business wasting money on holding a primary and general election every two years.  If necessary I’ll start a signature campaign to get a charter revision on an upcoming ballot (8/2010?) to change our system to non-partisan.  But I’d prefer one of the members of the Board of Aldermen to introduce legislation to get this on the ballot so the voters can decide.  This change is simple, doesn’t eliminate the number of elected offices and would save taxpayer’s money.

The challenges of a McCowan facing a Slay are apparent with our partisan system.  Going non-partisan will not make challenging a well funded incumbent any easier or more difficult.  I believe going non-partisan will increase the number of candidates in most wards.  Wards with contested races the participation of voters was much higher than in wards without contested races.  Non-contested odd-numbered wards had turnout as follows: 5th (9.1%), 7th (10.8%), 9th (11.8%), 11th (13.8%), 13th (15.8%), 15th (12.8%), 17th (%), 27th (10.0%).  Contested wards were: 1st (15.2%), 3rd (15.8%), 21st (18.1%) 23rd (26.4%), 25th (16.5%).

Challengers to the Democratic nominee face an uphill battle from the start.  First, most voters only vote for the Democrat.  Two, everyone assumes the winner of the March Democratic primary is the winner before the April general election. So the reality is we have one election in March.  We already have one election, we just call it a primary.

Besides going non-partisan, we need a system for instant-runoff voting (IRV).  In this type of system you rank candidates rather than just pick one.  From Wikipedia:

If no candidate is the first preference of a majority of voters, the candidate with the fewest number of first preference rankings is eliminated and that candidate’s ballots are redistributed at full value to the remaining candidates according to the next ranking on each ballot. This process is repeated until one candidate obtains a majority of votes among candidates not eliminated. The term “instant runoff” is used because the method is said to simulate a series of runoff elections tallied in rounds, as in an exhaustive ballot election.

When you have only two candidates it doesn’t matter because you know one will get at least 50% + 1.  But when you have four (25th) or seven (23rd) candidates it can make a difference in the final outcome.

Look for a change to non-partisan races with IRV coming to a ballot near you in 2010.

Few Surprises in St. Louis Primary

As expected, many incumbent Democrats became their party’s nominee for the April general election.  Few were opposed.

In two wards, the 23rd & 25th, the incumbent did not seek re-election so we were guaranteed to see new faces in the Board of Aldermen.  In the 23rd Joe Vaccaro bested six other candidates to win the primary.  In the 25th Shane Cohn defeated three other candidates.  In both of these wards there are no candidates from any other political parties so they will be the new Aldermen for their wards.

Cohn becomes St. Louis’ first openly gay elected official.  I had hoped that would have been me four years ago.  Cohn is bright and energetic and he should set a good example for others.

In the 1st Ward Incumbent Charles Troup defeated Sharon Tyus with 54% of the vote.

Blogger Antonio French will be changing titles from Committeeman to Alderman as he has defeated incumbent Bennice King in the 21st ward.  King was the only incumbent defeated in the primary.

Francis Slay, as expected, won the Democratic primary for Mayor.  He now faces three opponents in the April general election.

For all the results click here (PDF of results).

Updated at 1pm on 3/4/09 — headline revised from ‘No Surprises in St. Louis Primary’ to ‘Few Surprises in St. Louis Primary’

I Guess I’ll Vote Today

Four years ago today I was a candidate for Alderman in the 25th ward.  I spent the day at Cleveland High School where two of the four precincts voted.  I lost that election but gained a better understanding of local politics and what needs to change.

In 2007 I moved to downtown and now reside in the 6th ward.  This year is the odd-numbered wards up for election.  That leaves, for me and others in even-numbered wards, two races to vote on: Comptroller and Mayor.

Comptroller Darlene Green is unopposed in both today’s Democratic primary and the general election on April 4th.  If she gets a single vote she’ll be reelected.  I suppose a write-in could get some votes but basically this race isn’t a race at all. I’m not going to vote in this race.  Green doesn’t need my vote.

The Democratic ballot for Mayor includes three candidates: incumbent Mayor Francis Slay, Irene J. Smith and the woman with too many names, Denise Watson-Wesley Coleman. Slay will win, no doubt.  Slay has had very good timing.  The availability of state historic tax credits helped fuel the rebirth of downtown during Slay’s first two terms. Slay and his cronies do want St. Louis to be like Chicago.  Not the vibrant urban Chicago — the corrupt backroom Chicago.  I cannot vote for Slay.  I can vote against Slay.

Denise Watson-Wesley Coleman is an unknown and remains so on election day. No dice.

Smith is a very smart woman with a lot of passion and some good ideas.  However, she’ll never get past the 2001 “incident.”  But I will go vote today and it will be for Smith.

Remember that today’s primary is just that first step leading up to the general election.  Until we go non-partisan, we have this charade of primary and general. What a waste of time and money. I saw Maida Coleman, the independent candidate for Mayor, last night at The Royale.  She is gearing up for her race against Slay.  That race will include the winner of today’s Green primary, a Libertarian and a Republican.

Hopefully the 2013 Mayoral race will be more competative.

KDHX & The Royale Tonight

I’ll be the guest on KDHX’s Collateral Damage program tonight from 7pm to 7:30pm.  Listen at 88.1FM or tune in online.

Afterwards I’m heading over to the smoke-free Royale for some last minute preliminary election conversation.  I might even have a beer.

Democratic Candidates for Mayor

For the last week I’ve had posts with answers to my questionnaire from candidates for Aldermen in the 23rd, 25th and several Northside wards.  Yesterday I had at least partial responses from the two Green party candidates for the office of Mayor.  Many have found the questions and answers helpful in reaching a decision.

Today I had hoped to bring you answers from the three candidates on the Democratic ballot for Mayor in Tuesdays primary.  However, none of the three bothered to respond.

I mailed letters to all candidates in contested primary races in late January.  This action was also announced here.  The letters were mailed to the addresses given by the candidates to the Board of Elections.  In the letter instructions were given on how to access the online questionnaire.

Democrat Denise Watson Wesley Coleman emailed me after the deadline on 2/10/09.  The questionnaire was closed but I indicated she could answer questions in the public version I had posted.  She never did that.  So answers from her, Irene J. Smith and 2-term incumbent Francis Slay remain a mystery.

Slay is seeking his 3rd term in office.  He might have been offended by the password used on the Mayoral questionnaire, “2Terms.”

It was my original intention to repeat the process again for the general election.  Five of the 14 wards up for election this year will have contested general elections, 3, 7, 9, 11 & 13.  The Mayoral race will be a 4-way race with the winner the Democratic primary, the winner of the Green primary, a Libertarian and Independent Maida Coleman.  But with trying to earn a living in this climate, mid-term tests & projects in grad school and a Seattle & Portland trip planned for Spring Break (3/7-3/16) I don’t think I’ll have the time to do the same for the general election.

I am in the process of revising/streamlining the questionnaire so it works for candidates for Aldermen and Mayor.  A link to this questionnaire will be posted here with a few days after the primary.  I think with a follow-up phone call to the number on record with the Board of Elections I could verify any answers I receive are indeed from that candidate and not another.