Reverend F. Willis Johnson Jr. said he hit the pavement at 4:15 a.m. this morning, visiting polling locations and hanging up signs. Johnson is one of eight candidates running for three open seats on the Ferguson-Florissant School Board.
“There are 35 polling places, and I’ve been to at least 12 of them so far,” he said at about 11:30 a.m. today. “My goal is to go by all of them today.”
Willis is part of the “Grade A for Change Slate,” which also includes Donna Paulette-Thurman and James Savala. Other candidates include Kimberly Benz, Larry Thomas and LaWanda Wallace – as well as the two incumbents: Paul Morris, president of the board, and Rob Chabot, board secretary.
Willis said the polling locations have been slow so far. However, in North St. Louis County, most voters tend to vote in the evening.
“We still have seven hours left,” said Alfred Long, the Grade A campaign manager and member of the Citizens’ Task Force on Excellence in Education, which helped organize the slate. “It will be a rush after work, hours 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.”
Willis is pleased that it’s been a respectful race with no animosity among candidates, and today is a great example of that, he said. All of the candidates have been working well together today. He had a nice conversation with Benz at one of the polling places this morning.
“This is a small community,” he said. “Volunteers are just passing out everyone’s stuff. I thought that was cool. I think the sentiment is no matter what your philosophical bit, everyone acknowledges that there is a greater level we can achieve and there’s much we need to improve upon.”
The two incumbents running for re-election voted to place Superintendent Art McCoy on administrative leave in November. McCoy subsequently resigned. The Citizens’ Taskforce highly criticized the board’s November action and organized the Grade A candidates in response.
Long said several of the voters leaving the polls have said, “We want those guys out.”
Residents have until 7 p.m. to cast their vote.
Overall St. Louis County voters will elect alderpersons in 38 municipalities, council members in 21 municipalities, trustees in 21 municipalities, mayors in 21 municipalities, directors in 15 school districts, collectors in five municipalities, marshals in three municipalities, trustees in two community college sub-districts and a judge in one municipality.
Voters also will decide propositions in six municipalities and six fire districts and bond issues in three school districts, two municipalities and one fire district.
For polling places or additional information related to today’s election, visithttp://www.stlouisco.com/yourgovernment/elections