ST PAUL, Minn. — City council candidates Cheniqua Johnson and Anika Bowie clinched victories after ranked choice ballots were re-tabulated Friday, completing the all-female sweep of the Capital City's governing board.
It's a sure sign that change is coming to St. Paul City Hall in 2024 with a council lineup composed of young, progressive liberals and dominated by women of color.
"St. Paul voters are telling us this is the vision, the policy direction we want to see. We want our leaders to continue focusing on equity, on solving injustices. We want to make sure everyone in our city does well," Council Member Mitra Jalali, who won reelection Tuesday in Ward 4, told KARE.
After Tuesday's election, Johnson led in first choice votes in Ward 7 but didn't meet the majority threshold of 50% plus one. Similarly, Bowie led in Ward 1 but didn't have a decisive majority of first choice votes.
The two stood for hours Friday, along with their opponents, watching election workers count, sort, and resort ballots at the Ramsey County Elections Center in St. Paul.
"It's kind of like camping out for a Black Friday sale," Bowie remarked. "We're just taking care of each other here. And people are calling, saying, 'Should I come down? Should I stop by?' And we're, like, 'Hey, if you want to, then camp out with us."
Before election workers could start eliminating lower rung candidates and reassigning their ballots based on second and third choices, they had to separate all of the ballots into stacks based on first choice. Those stacks had to be counted before reallocation could begin.
"You'll have all the ballots in that contest sorted out by first choice," Deputy Ramsey County Elections Director David Triplett told KARE.
"We'll take the person with the lowest totals and we'll start reallocating their ballots first. And when someone gets to that 50% plus one mark, we can stop the process and report an unofficial winner."
Nearly seven hours into the process, Johnson learned she had pulled ahead of the 50% mark and had eliminated her closest competitor, Pa Der Vang. A group of supporters erupted in response and greeted her in the lobby with hugs.
"I'm from Saint Paul! in front Dayton's Bluff!" Johnson declared.
"Genuinely, thank you to my community that trusted in me, and genuinely thank you to those that believed in me!"
It took until 7 p.m. — 11 hours into the reallocation process — for Bowie to reach the magic vote total in Ward 1, eliminating James Lo and Omar Syed.
"I'm excited to get started serving my community on the council. I was thrilled with the turnout and the vote totals that were double what we saw when I ran in 2019."
Election workers will come back Monday to do the same ranked choice reallocation in the Ward 3 race. But that won't have as much drama because the second place finisher in that contest has already conceded to the winner, Saura Jost.