April 07--Despite heavy morning rains, observers and candidates for Ferguson's City Council election Tuesday said that early turnout appears to be good as voters face one of the most important elections in city's recent memory.
Turnout "has been much heavier than normal," one candidate, former Ferguson Mayor Brian Fletcher -- who says he has run in about 10 elections -- told the Los Angeles Times in a phone interview as he greeted voters outside a polling place.
"Thanks for coming out!" Fletcher called out to one voter during the interview.
Fletcher's opponent in the 2nd Ward, Bob Hudgins, standing about 20 feet away at the First Presbyterian Church of Ferguson, told The Times, "It doesn't look so hot for me" at that polling station, especially compared with another polling station at a local elementary school.
"We're seeing a lot of white folks saying they're voting for my opponent," said Hudgins, who, like Fletcher, is white, but is a protester-turned-candidate who has the support of some of the city's most prominent black activists.
Despite the support of some white voters, "It's breaking down pretty well along racial lines," Hudgins said. "It's all about turnout. If it's up, I win, if it's the same I lose. It's as simple as that."
Hudgins' race against Fletcher will be one of the most closely watched in Ferguson as the troubled, predominantly black St. Louis suburb holds its first municipal election since protests erupted after the police shooting death of unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown last summer.
Tuesday's race for three open City Council seats offers voters a chance to elect as many as two more black council members to the six-member council.
The seat being sought by Hudgins and Fletcher will still be held by a white council member -- although one activist supporting Hudgins, Tony Rice, told The Times before the election that "technically if we get Bob a seat, it's like having another black person."
Only one of the council's current members is black, despite the city being 67% black, which observers attribute to much stronger turnout by the city's white voters. The city's mayor, James Knowles III, who is white, also has a vote on the council.
Three of the current white council members decided not to run for reelection, and a diverse group of eight candidates -- four white and four black -- are running to take their places. The candidates are split between the city's three different wards.
If elected, they will be part of a council that is set to make one of the most important decisions a city council can make: Hiring Ferguson's next city manager, who will hire the next police chief, and who will be responsible for running a budget that has been controversially reliant on fines from predominantly poor and black drivers.
The next City Council will also have to make decisions about how to face the looming demands of the U.S. Department of Justice after it issued a report accusing the city's predominantly white police department of unconstitutionally harassing black residents and drivers.
Faced with such tough decisions, some residents have been concerned that voter turnout might be as low as it has been in the past. Only 11.7% of voters participated in the last City Council race.
A weeks-long voter drive -- by both candidates and by college students across the country pitching in during their spring breaks -- continued Tuesday as campaigners and activists went door-to-door, some wearing rain ponchos, to get voters to the polls.
"Right now, we're doing lunch and trying to get all the poll workers dry, because it's been raining a very fierce storm here," said candidate Ella Jones, who is one of two black women facing off against two white men in the Ward 1 race. The other candidates in Ward 1 are Adrienne Hawkins, Doyle McClellan and Mike McGrath.
Even as rain poured down in the morning, Jones rode with a volunteer van driver to pick up two senior citizens eager to get to the polls.
"They're calling for rides, I think that's great," Jones told The Times. "The numbers are getting there. ... I think the rain discouraged a lot of people, but it's going to dry up and people are going to come out in droves. ... I have not encountered anyone who was not excited about voting."
In the 3rd Ward, where Brown was killed Aug. 9 after a struggle with Officer Darren Wilson, two black candidates are squaring off, retired resident Lee Smith and Wesley Bell, a community college professor and a municipal judge and prosecutor in two nearby suburbs.
"It's slow and steady, but it is steady," Bell said of the turnout Tuesday, hoping that more voters would come out after work and before polls close at 7 p.m. "The rain obviously put a damper on that. I still think it's going to be a higher turnout than in previous elections."
Results will be posted on the St. Louis County Election Board's website. Eric Fey, the county's director of elections, told The Times that the first poll results will come in around 8:30 to 9 p.m.
UPDATE
12:44 p.m: This story was written through to focus only on Ferguson's election and includes comments from some of the candidates and community activists as voters went to the polls.
This story was originally published at 8:53 a.m.
