St. Louis Needs To Go Non-Partisan
Today is the partisan municipal primary in the City of St. Louis, each political party (Republican, Green, Democrat) will select from candidates to represent them in the general election next month. Â Well, at least in theory.
In practice, today is the election and next month is an unrelated election for school board and propositions. You see we have so much money in St. Louis we can afford to hold two elections every two years. Â After all, any city with a massive budget shortfall wouldn’t continue funding duplicate elections, right?
If we faced severe budget issues we’d go non-partisan for local officials and condense two elections into a single election with instant runoff. Just glad not all races will be decided today, as a few will not be determined until next month.
– Steve Patterson
Add IRV to the mix
Steve-minor correction-I think- recent changes in the law moved school board elections to November ballots to help boost voter participation, leaving general city elections and initiatives for the April ballots…
According to the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners website the filing for school board seats opened on December 14th and closed on January 18th.
I think of the money wasted sending out the voter cards — not every community does it this way, many just publish an ad letting everyone know an election is going to be taking place. Could be a money saver if they slashed the postcards out of the budget.
Exactly. Just announce it on television, newspaper, & city web site, and don't do massive mailings.
Agree on non-partisan, for several reasons. As for voting, we could (should?) investigate going to all-mail-in voting, to both reduce costs and to improve participation.
This plan, while much more convenient, wouldn’t save that much money. The city would be paying postage to send ballots to all registered voters, and probably paying the return postage as well!
Non-partisan local elections is a no-brainer. Why do we do anything else?
As for the rest…agree completely.
You mean you'd have to actually know whom you're voting for? What they actually stood for? And not just automatically vote for the “D” candidate? That's too much responsibility.
This plan, while much more convenient, wouldn’t save that much money. The city would be paying postage to send ballots to all registered voters, and probably paying the return postage as well!