St. Paul voters will decide whether to move election day to even-numbered years

At first glance, a Nov. 5 ballot question asking St. Paul voters to shift city elections to even-numbered presidential election years seems certain to achieve its backers’ goal: Increase voter turnout in Minnesota’s capital city.

In 2016, more than 140,000 St. Paul residents cast votes. And in 2020, more than 150,000 voted. Those numbers were about three times greater than the people who decided St. Paul’s mayor and City Council elections in 2021 and 2023.

“I certainly think that higher turnout is the gold standard for elections,” said Peter Butler, who has led petition drives in 2017 (unsuccessful) and 2023 (successful) to put a change before voters. “As a democracy, that is your primary measure whether government is representative to the people.”

But City Council President Mitra Jalali fears that the ballot year would create a ballot jumble that would drown out city issues and hinder the ability of candidates to capture voters’ attention. For instance, she asked, what would happen to St. Paul’s system of ranked-choice voting on a ballot crowded with presidential and congressional candidates, too?




https://www.startribune.com/st-paul-voters-will-decide-whether-to-move-election-day-to-even-numbered-years/601153755