Cheniqua Johnson has emerged as the winner in the race for the St. Paul City Council Ward 7 seat Friday after a recount and reallocation of ballots.

St. Paul Ward 7 City Council candidate Cheniqua Johnson talks with her campaign staff members Nonkululeko Shongwe, left, and Latisha Townsend during ballot reallocation process for St. Paul City Council at the Ramsey County Property Tax, Records and Elections Services building in St. Paul on Friday, Nov., 10, 2023. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Johnson, 28, will represent a district in southeastern St. Paul encompassing neighborhoods including Dayton’s Bluff, Mounds Park, Swede Hollow, and Battle Creek. Her win comes after a reallocation of votes in St. Paul’s ranked-choice voting system.

She will join a slate of self-described progressive members on the council, where a majority will soon be women of color.

“It feels amazing to be able to have the rest of my community to be a part of this historic moment, but not just because it’s an all-women council, but because of our community and ward also deserve someone who reflects it,” she said. “I look forward to being able to be the first person of color and the first black woman to represent our community in Ward 7.”

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On election night it was already apparent St. Paul voters had elected five progressive female candidates to the seven member council. But the outcome of two races were still up in the air Friday, as none of the eight candidates gained a 50% majority in Tuesday’s election.

Counting ballots

With new totals in the race for Ward 7 Ramsey County Election, workers on Friday afternoon turned to count and reallocate ballots for the race in Ward 1.

St. Paul voters rank candidates by choice on their ballots. If one candidate gets a simple majority, they win. But if there’s no clear winner, elections officials will eliminate the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes and award votes to the second choice listed on the ballot. This process is repeated until one candidate has 50% support.

Organizers, candidates and interested members of the public gathered at the Ramsey County Elections office on the West Side of St. Paul as workers processed ballots in a process that got started around 8 a.m. and continued well into the afternoon.

Recounting ballots alone took around six hours before elections workers could move on to the process of reallocating ballots themselves.

St. Paul’s Ward 7 was the closer of the two races reallocated on Friday. Johnson led with 41% of the vote after the first round of voting and was closely tailed by Vang, who had 36%. Voters cast about 4,400 ballots for six candidates in that race.

After reallotment, Johnson had 1,986 and Vang had 1,852 of 3,838 votes counted in the first round.

In the Ward 1 race, Anika Bowie, had a much larger lead after the first round results, with 40% of the vote, followed by James Lo with 20%. There were a total of 6,645 ballots cast in that race.

Incumbents re-elected

There were four open seats on St. Paul City Council in this year’s election. The three incumbent councilmembers running for reelection warded off challenges Tuesday night.

Rebecca Noecker, who faced three challengers, garnered 63% of the vote in Ward 2, which covers downtown St. Paul, the West Side and surrounding neighborhoods.

Mitra Jalali received 79% of the vote in Ward 4, which covers Hamline Midway, St. Anthony Park and parts of Macalester-Groveland and Como.

Nelsie Yang, who represents the East Side’s Ward 6, won with 61% of the vote.

Hwa Jeong Kim won in Ward 5, a district that covers Como, North End, Payne-Phalen and Railroad Island. She won with 52% of the vote.

Ward 3

Saura Jost prevailed in Ward 3 with 48% of the vote after the second-highest vote getting candidate Isaac Russell conceded the election late Tuesday. Ward 3 includes Highland Park and Macalester-Groveland.

However, Russell on Thursday requested a full ballot count and reallocation, even though he had conceded the election to Jost on election night.

Ramsey County spokesperson Megan Fournier said elections workers will recount and reallocate ballots in that race on Monday.

Results won’t be official until the City Council certifies them next Wednesday.

Check back for updates on the developing story.

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