ST. LOUIS – Absentee voting is now open in St. Louis for the March municipal primary.
Ahead of the November election, lawmakers passed a special bill that made “Concerns over COVID” a reason you could select to vote absentee or via mail-in ballot. That bill expired at the first of the year. That means you have to meet one of the other statutory requirements in order to vote absentee or mail-in.
You have until Feb. 17 to request an absentee ballot from the city.
Gary Stoff, the Republican director of elections for the City of St. Louis, said in November they had about 47,000 absentee or mail in votes. For the March primary, they expect between 10,000 and 15,000 such votes. They didn’t have any problems in November and don’t expect them now.
“We had virtually no problems in November,” he said. “I don’t think voters need to be concerned other than if someone is wanting to vote absentee, we need to receive the request no later than 5 o’clock on Feb. 17. Earlier is always better than later.”
The biggest changes voters will notice is that this will be the first non-partisan election. Which means candidates don’t file with a party and you will not be voting on a Republican or Democrat ballot. You will just be voting for the office and you can vote for more than one person.
“In this primary, because of Proposition D, a voter can vote for as many candidates as they want for a given office,” Stoff said. “Then the two candidates with the most votes will go on to the April election.”
Here is a sample ballot and a list of important dates.
