With all seven ward seats up for election in November, St. Paul City Council races are bound to be busy. Now add in the fact there are more than two dozen candidates and there’s no political primary to whittle down the ballot.
As of Tuesday’s filing deadline, at least 28 candidates had filed to run in the ranked-choice election. The candidates have through Thursday to withdraw from the ballot before their entries become official. Otherwise, they’ll all be added to the Nov. 5 ballot, and voters will be able to rank each candidate in order of preference.
Each of the seven political wards has drawn at least three or four candidates.
In Ward 6, the East Side seat previously held by Dan Bostrom, six candidates filed for office. In Ward 2, which spans downtown St. Paul and neighboring parts of the city, five candidates filed.
A full list of filings is available from the Minnesota secretary of state’s office and the Ramsey County elections office at RamseyCounty.us/elections.
The November ballot will include four seats on the St. Paul school board, and possibly a question about organized trash collection. The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit over the city’s new trash collection system on Aug. 20.