While the municipal election is certainly not as busy as a November general election, officials are still encouraging St. Louis residents to vote early.
From Tuesday, February 18 to Monday, March 3, St. Louis residents can vote early in the municipal primary election for mayor, comptroller and alderpersons in odd-numbered wards. Six libraries including the Kingshighway branch will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and the Board of Elections office on Tucker will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Early voting locations and times:
Locations
Buder Library
Carpenter Library
Divoll Library Closed on Sunday
Kingshighway Library Closed on Sunday
Schlafly Library
Walnut Park Library Closed on Sunday
Times
Mondays 1 p.m.-5 p.m.
Tuesdays-Thursdays 11 a.m.-.5 p.m.
Fridays and Saturdays 11a.m.-4:30 p.m.
All you need is a state or federally issued picture ID, like a driver’s license or passport, to cast your ballot.
You can find out location hours and wait time at libraries in St. Louis city by checking the city election board’s website: https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/board-election-commissioners/voter/polling-places/index.cfm
“They do something called the approval voting. That means you can vote for as many candidates that you approve of. This year with the number of candidates, that means that you can vote for all the candidates if you wanted to. You can vote for one, you can vote for none. You can vote for any combination that’s on the ballot. What will happen is that the two top vote-getters will then move on to the general,” Board of Elections Democratic Director Ben Borgmeyer said.
For early voting or no-excuse absentee voting, you can go to any of the seven polling places.
“What you need to vote is just an ID. There’s no excuse needed. So that means as long as you’re a St. Louis city registered voter and you have an ID, you can vote tomorrow,” Borgmeyer said
But preparation for this election has not been as smooth as previous ones. The old elevators in the board of elections building broke down and there’s no timeline on fixing them, which means they’ve had a tough time accessing their warehouse on the third floor.
“We’ve been running unmanned flights from the third floor, just retrieving our equipment. We’re getting it down here. For the early voting, that equipment came down over the weekend. It’s all been distributed today,” Borgmeyer said.
The board of elections said it’s going to be an even bigger challenge for the main election days.
Right now they’re in the process of moving all of the equipment to a temporary warehouse that could become a permanent one.
“It will go out from that warehouse to polling places for March, return there after the March election and stored there till April, then go out from there for April,” Borgmeyer said.
The board does not believe this will impact the election process.
They’re currently in the process of mailing out voter info cards and sample ballots.
St. Louis voters can also look at a sample ballot before voting early online here.
February 25 Absentee voting with an excuse opens (8:00 a.m.) for the April General Municipal Election.
Absentee voting begins six weeks before an election for registered voters. You may vote by absentee ballot if you fulfill one of the following criteria:
- Incapacity or confinement due to illness or physical disability.
- Expect to be absent on Election Day
- Election workers, first responders, healthcare workers and members of law enforcement
- Prevented by religious beliefs from going to the polls on election day
- Incarcerated but haven’t lost right to vote
- Active-duty military personnel and close family members living with them.
- Missouri citizens living outside the U.S.
Hours for Excuse-Absentee Voting Locations:
- Monday: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
- Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday, 11 a.m.- 5 p.m.
- Friday & Saturday: 11 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
St. Louis City Election Board:
- Monday-Friday: 8 AM–5 PM
- Saturday, March 1: 9 AM-1 PM
Acceptable ID are:
- Valid Missouri driver’s license
- Valid Missouri non-driver’s license
- Valid U.S. passport
- Valid military ID
Voters with limited mobility can vote “curbside” or outside the polling place. Visit a polling place and ask someone to notify Election Judges of your need to vote curbside. A bi-partisan team of Election Judges will bring a vote recorder and ballot to your vehicle.
This article was originally published in KSDK.