Only 92 Days Until St. Louis’ First Non-Partisan Municipal Election
Another presidential election is behind us…well, most of us. Now it’s time to think about St. Louis’ March 2021 primary. It began a week ago when filing opened.
Here’s a look at the important dates, from the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners:
- 11/23/20: Filing begins
- 01/04/21: Filing ends
- 01/20/21: Absentee voting begins
- 02/03/21: Last day to register for this election
- 02/17/21: Last day to request an absentee ballot
- 03/01/21: Last day to vote absentee in person
- 03/02/21: Election date
The March 2, 2021 primary will look very different from any previous primary in St. Louis history — every candidate is independent of a political party. Earlier this month voters approved a measure to change local elections to non-partisan.
The other major change is when you have three or more candidates. If no candidate gets at least 50% of the vote in the March 2nd primary then the top two candidates will face each other in a runoff in April.
No longer will the March primary be the de facto election, April should matter. Unless all races only have one or two candidates. And theoretically we could have races with 3 or more candidates but one gets at least 50% of the votes on March 2nd. Propositions and school board elections remain in April, first Tuesday.
It will eliminate printing primary ballots for up to five political parties (Democrat, Republican, Green, Constitution, Libertarian). Fringe candidates often ran in a party other than democrat, this got them on the April general election ballot. No more of that thankfully.
We may still have fringe candidates on the March ballot, but they’ll likely not make a possible runoff in April.
What local offices are having elections in March 2021? The aldermen in the 14 odd-numbered wards, comptroller, and mayor. Two even-numbered wards (4, 12) have elections.
I believe the winners in the 14 aldermanic races will have 2-year terms, not the usual 4-year terms. This is because beginning in 2023 the number of wards will drop from 28 to 14. Voters approved this change a number of years ago.
As stated in the opening paragraph, filing began a week ago. Potential candidates still have more than a month to file, so if you’ve ever thought about running you’ve still got until January 4, 2021.
Fewer candidates have filed on the first day than I expected. Lewis Reed & Cara Spencer have both filed for mayor. Others like Tishaura Jones are expected to file. Mayor Lyda Krewson recently announced she wouldn’t seek a second term.
Only incumbent Darlene Green has filed for comptroller, not sure anyone else will file. Even candidates I like shouldn’t win simply because nobody ran against them.
As of the first day of filing no candidate has filed in four of the nine aldermanic seats, something I wasn’t expecting. The four are 1, 11, 17, and 27.
Unsurprisingly eight wards only have one candidate, so far. These are 3, 4, 7, 9, 15, 19, 23, and 25. Of these six are incumbents: 4, 9, 15, 19, 23, and 25.
And my favorite— four wards have contested races: 5, 12, 13, and 21. The first three are the incumbent and a challenger. The 21st ward is the incumbent and three challengers! So far the 21st ward is the only race that might lead to an April runoff.
Sometime between the close of filing and the election I’ll look at the races and candidates. In the meantime I encourage those who are interested to run for public office. To see how to file for alderman click here.
— Steve Patterson