Voters in St. Louis will decide next month whether to change how they fill vacancies on the Board of Aldermen.
The city in 2020 adopted a nonpartisan approval voting system for mayor, board president, comptroller and members of the board in which voters select as many candidates as they want in the primary with the top two advancing. While Proposition D said the system applied to special elections for aldermanic vacancies, the city's charter says those must be filled using partisan elections.
Proposition 1 deletes that section of the charter.
"What we're trying to do here is make sure that we don't have a conflict within our own laws," said 6th Ward Alderwoman Daniela Velazquez, who sponsored the legislation placing Proposition 1 on the ballot. "To go every election cycle knowingly saying we have a conflict that will not just iron itself out is not good government."
City elections officials say it costs about $30,000 for each round of a single-ward special election. If only two candidates file, a first round of voting is not required.
There have been five single-ward special elections to fill vacancies since approval voting took effect. While all used a partisan nominating process, the city decided not to place party labels on the ballot for a special election to fill the 8th Ward in 2025. That triggered a lawsuit from the city's Democratic Central Committee, which objects generally to nonpartisan elections.
"It removes transparency from voters," said committee Chair Sean Fauss. "If I have a race like school board, and I have candidates running, I have no way to have any idea about their political affiliation without getting information from them."
While the committee is still free to endorse its preferred candidate in a race, as it did with Mayor Cara Spencer in 2025, educating voters comes at a cost, Fauss said. He added that an expansion of approval voting may violate a Missouri constitutional amendment approved in 2024 that blocked its use, though St. Louis was carved out of the ban.
Charter changes require a 60% majority to be approved.
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