On Tuesday, August 2 it will be time to head to the polls and cast your vote for Primary Elections and also decide on a few St. Louis County charter amendments. Crestwood residents traditionally have strong turnout rates and I’m sure we’ll all be there again this time.
For Ward 3, Whitecliff Community Center is our “home” polling place, but you can visit any St. Louis County polling place to vote. Other nearby polling places include Grants View Library (Music Road), Lindbergh Schools Central Office, and Crestwood City Hall. You can find a list of all polling places with “line tracker” updates on election day HERE.
Since this is a Primary Election – you will have to choose the party for which you want to vote – or just select “Issues Only”. This time the ballot choices are the same for all of Ward 3, so I’ve provided sample ballots below. If you live outside of Ward 3, then you can look up a sample ballot HERE
Ward 3 Sample Ballots
I’ve searched local media websites for stories about the candidates and issues, but there’s not much out there. Here’s what I found:
St. Louis County Charter Amendments
(I’ll probably vote Yes for these)Prop A: Whistleblower Protection provides protection to county employees who discuss the internal operations of St. Louis County with the media or other parties if that employee reasonably believes it “amounts to mismanagement”.
Prop M: Council Compensation Commission would create a new commission whose role would be to review and recommend any changes to Council rates of pay. This commission will meet every 5 years. This is probably an improvement over the current system where the Council is responsible for setting their own pay (which is about $20,000 per year). Under this structure, the commission would make recommendations to the council, but the council would still need to approve those recommendations.
Prop V – Appointment Approvals is probably a partisan play by the Council, but I think it has merit. This provides for checks and balances on appointments made by the County Executive (department heads, commissioners, etc.) such that the Council would need to confirm those appointments. If they don’t vote on a confirmation within 30 days, then it’s automatically approved. This clearly gives the council more power over how the county is run, but since the County Executive is an elected position, it could avoid “pay to play” scenarios and help to ensure qualified people fill those roles.
State Representative – District 96
The entire city of Crestwood is within District 96, so we’ll all have the same choice on this position. There are two candidates running on the Republican ballot (Brad Christ and Mike Tsichlis), but the Democratic candidate (Leslie Derrington) is running unopposed. I applaud each of these candidates as that they have all been knocking on doors and meeting residents.
Since she is running unopposed, there doesn’t appear to be any media coverage on Leslie Derrington yet. However, The Call Newspaper interviewed the two Republican candidates (view article HERE):
Here are some additional resources for your voting preparation:
St. Louis Post Dispatch - Online Voters Guide (You can choose candidates and end up with a printable/sharable sample ballot)
St. Louis Public Radio – St. Louis Voter Guide
St. Louis Public Radio – St. Louis County Charter Amendments A and V
St. Louis Public Radio – US Congressional Midterm Candidates
Call Newspaper – Local Endorsements for Primary
Call Newspaper – County Executive Dueker vs. Page
Call Newspaper – State Treasurer
KMOV - One-on-one interview with incumbent St. Louis County Executive Dr. Sam Page
KMOV - One-on-one with St. Louis County Executive Candidate Jane Dueker
KSDK - Missouri primary 2022: Voter guide for St. Louis area