ST. LOUIS – It’s Election Day on both sides of the river, and this will be a history making municipal election in the city of St. Louis. For the first time in more than 100 years, St. Louis City voters will elect a board of aldermen with 14 members instead of 28.

The Mallinckrodt Academy of Gifted Instruction at the Pernod and Hampton Avenues is one of the polling places for the new ward four. This ward race will likely be among the closely watched contests because of the candidates.

The number of city wards has been cut in half from 28 to 14. In two of the new wards, incumbents from the old 28 ward structure are squaring off against each other.

One of those wards is in ward four, where it is Joe Vaccaro versus Bret Narayan. In the new ward 13, incumbents Norma Walker and Pamela Boyd are vying for that seat.

In eight of the 14 new wards, one of the candidates is an incumbent from the old ward set up.

Three of the new wards feature races where neither candidate is an incumbent and two people are running unopposed. Those are Board President Megan Green and Shan Cohn, an incumbent who will represent the new ward three.

Board of aldermen members approved the new 14 ward make up in December 2021. City voters initially passed a measure back in 2012 to cut the number of wards and aldermen in half after the 2020 census.

Voter turnout was very low in last month’s primary, with only 12.5% of registered city voters casting ballots. City voting officials are projecting a turnout Tuesday of 18 to 19%.