Polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday night in the special election for the Ward 4 seat on the St. Paul City Council, though results were not expected until later in the night.
Ward 4 is in northwestern St. Paul and includes all or part of five neighborhoods: Hamline-Midway, Merriam Park, St. Anthony Park, and parts of Macalester-Groveland and Como.
Former city council member Mitra Jalali vacated the seat in March. Mayor Melvin Carter appointed Matt Privratsky to fill the seat until the special election.
The candidates
Here’s who was on the ballot:
• Chauntyll Allen, a member of the St. Paul school board and a leader of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities.
• Molly Coleman, founder of progressive court reform nonprofit People’s Parity Project.
• Cole Hanson, a statewide online education coordinator who teaches nutrition to recipients of federal food assistance who is endorsed by the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America.
• Carolyn Will, founder of CW Marketing and Communications, a former TV newscaster and opponent of the city’s proposed Summit Avenue bikeway.
The winner of the special election will take the seat and represent Ward 4 through the November 2028 election.
Ranked-choice vote
Under St. Paul’s ranked-choice voting system, voters were able to rank candidates in order of preference. There was no primary election.
The race is officially nonpartisan, and the St. Paul Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party did not make any endorsements this summer as it works to rebuild itself.
A winner could emerge late Tuesday. However, if no candidate wins an absolute majority on election night — 50% plus one of the vote — election officials will begin a reallocation process.
St. Paul voters rank candidates by choice on their ballots.
If one candidate gets a simple majority, they win. But if there’s no clear winner, officials will eliminate the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes and award votes to the second choice listed on the ballot. This process is repeated until one candidate has 50% support.
If reallocation is needed, the process is tentatively scheduled for Friday, Aug. 15, according to Ramsey County spokesman Casper Hill.
At the polls
Residents at the polls Tuesday named a variety of local issues on their minds this year, including affordable housing, bike lanes, road quality and property taxes.
Como resident Jeanne Baumann said she wanted more affordable accommodations for unhoused people in the city instead of “giant apartment buildings that they can’t afford.”
Hamline-Midway resident Annie Kuhn said she was concerned with rising housing costs and property taxes when ranking candidates.
“My one kid is probably going to be able to buy a house; the other one probably never, ever will,” Kuhn said. “It’s just ridiculous that housing costs have spiraled so much.”
Val Woelfel, who has lived in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood for 30 years, said one of her voting priorities was city development issues, such as the vacant CVS on the corner of Snelling and University avenues “sucking the energy out of the neighborhood.”
Bike lanes, road quality
Como resident Karen Lenander said she prioritized candidates who opposed cutting down trees in historic neighborhoods to create more bike paths.
Como resident Gary Grave agreed, saying city bike paths “are used four months out of the year and then block traffic.”
Merriam Park resident Dylan Brooks said road quality was a top issue.
“City council can help increase patrolling for police, then also they control how road maintenance is managed,” Brooks said. “So those are kind of the two biggest things that I looked at.”
Compromise, getting things done
Merriam Park resident Jeff Fugina said he wants a moderate viewpoint to the council, which he believes has “drifted way to one side in recent years.”
Hamline-Midway resident Eric Gustafson said he didn’t feel like the policy positions of the four candidates were vastly different, and he voted for candidates he thought best understood the “slow process” of implementing new policy.
“If I was looking at one thing or another, it was how I thought they would work to get things done,” he said.
Kathryn Kovalenko contributed to this story.
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