Yesterday was election day in St. Paul. Here’s the results. Five of seven seats on the City Council have returning incumbents. Rebecca Noecker (62%), Chris Tolbert (61%), Mitra Jalali Nelson (59%), Amy Brendmoen (53%), and Jane Prince (62%). All won by virtue of surpassing 50% of first choice votes after the election night count. Two seats remain up in the air.
In Ward 6, Nelsie Yang has what looks like an insurmountable 17 point lead (44-27%) over Terri Thao. In Ward 1, incumbent Dai Thao leads Anika Bowie 42-30%; Liz De La Torre is in third place with 19%. Final results might take a while: Ramsey County is scheduled to begin reallocating voters’ ranked choices on Friday.
Voters citywide came out in favor retaining St. Paul’s organized trash ordinance by a 63-37% margin. If organized trash was a candidate, it would have been the most popular candidate on the ballot last night.
Continue reading “St. Paul Makes Big Change, Despite Voting to Keep Things Mostly the Same”