While results are more or less final in most of St. Paul’s city council races, Ramsey County election officials on Friday will work to determine winners in races where no candidate reached the threshold needed to automatically win.

Since no candidate got 50% or more of the vote in Ward 1 and Ward 7, St. Paul’s ranked-choice instant runoff voting rules for city elections call for a “reallocation” to determine winners in those races. Officials will have to process more than 11,000 ballots.

Wards 1 and 7 aren’t the only races headed for another count. Ward 3 candidate Isaac Russell on Thursday requested a full ballot count and reallocation, even though he conceded the election to Saura Jost on election night.

Ramsey County spokesperson Megan Fournier said elections workers will recount and reallocate ballots in that race on Monday. Russell got a little more than 30% of the vote and Jost got around 48.5%. Voters cast more than 13,000 ballots in that race.

St. Paul voters have the ability to 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.

The recount begins at 8 a.m. Friday and will take place at the Ramsey County’s building at 90 Plato Blvd. W. on St. Paul’s West Side. Fournier said the process is open to the public.

Seven seats on St. Paul’s city council were up for election Tuesday night.

In Ward 1, a central district that incudes Frogtown, Summit-University and other surrounding neighborhoods, there was no clear winner among the eight candidates. However, the first round of results showed Anika Bowie had significant lead with 40% of the vote, followed by James Lo with 20%. There were a total of 6,645 ballots cast in that race.

The closer race is in southeastern St. Paul’s Ward 7, where Cheniqua Johnson led with 41% of the vote. She is closely tailed by Pa Der Vang, who sits at 36%. Voters cast about 4,400 ballots for six candidates in that race.

Related Articles

Isaac Russell campaign asks for tally of second-choice votes in Ward 3

Next St. Paul City Council will include 5 or 6 progressive women of color. Who will be council president?

Voters elect four to St. Paul school board, incumbent Ellis loses seat

A new St. Paul City Council to be seated in January, 3 incumbents hold off challengers

St. Paul voters approve sales tax hike to pay for 24 road rebuilds, parks projects