Ferguson, MO City Council Election - April 7, 2015

[Oak Hills]

Three new council members will be elected to today, as incumbents from all three wards up this year hav opted not to seek re-election.

To start off, here's a pretty good article from CNN profiling some of the candidates:

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[Ebsy]

It looks like Ward 1 is going to be the main battleground. The white candidate looks pretty clueless to me.

[Duke of York]

I dont understand why so many municipalities hold elections on odd dates throughout the year. Why not require all elections to be held in november? Or hold local elections in midterms or presidential years when the most people vote?

[Ebsy]

It's to make sure that as few people as possible vote.

[Oak Hills]

I can't find results for these elections anywhere.

[Ebsy]

Here is the link for the latest election results. Expect an update at 9 and then final results to be in at 10 or 11.

[free my dawg]

Looks like we can call Ward 3 for Bell and Ward 1 for Jones.

[Ebsy]

[Maxwell]

Good to see McGarth defeated.

[Ebsy]

McGrath seemed like a total idiot from his comments in the Post-Dispatch.

[Lief 🗽]

Pretty good Buzzfeed article summing up the results: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimdalrympleii/ferguson-elects-former-mayor-two-black-candidates-to-city-co#.ctRnmg38W

[Maxwell]

Shame to see Hudgins lose - but glad to see such a marked change in leadership to better reflect the city.

The question now is relations between general government and the police department, which will probably get Ferguson in more headlines for a while to come.

[Duke of York]

They should also pass a law moving the city council and mayoral election to presidential years.

[Ebsy]

They should also pass a law moving the city council and mayoral election to presidential years.

Not likely.

[Maxwell]

They should also pass a law moving the city council and mayoral election to presidential years.

Not likely.

And it seems pretty insignificant to the issues the city is dealing with.

[NeverAgain]

Ferguson is actually known world wide for their fair voting, I was watching a German News Program and it mentioned Ferguson. I turned it off before it finished, but I'm positive it was about this exciting election !

[Fuzzy Bear]

I dont understand why so many municipalities hold elections on odd dates throughout the year. Why not require all elections to be held in november? Or hold local elections in midterms or presidential years when the most people vote?

One reason for this is to properly highlight these elections.  Municipal elections are often non-partisan, or (in some NY locales) between candidates of local parties that are not Democrats or Republicans (although one local party may well be aligned with a major party).  Such elections tend to be obscured when they are downballot races, and not the main attraction.

The kind of mobilization blacks have had in many elections though black churches ("Souls to the Polls") is something that works well in a localized election with low turnout.  In many of these elections, the main constituency are local municipal employees and folks who want something from the city.  If a group can organize in such a way as to turn a constituency out in disproportionate numbers to everyone else, it can produce an upset result.

Ferguson, MO, is SO heavily African-American right now that I find it incomprehensible how they have had so few black elected officials.