In nonpartisan primary races throughout Ramsey County, voters leaned even bluer than usual.

In St. Paul, a candidate who ran for office on the rare platform of renters’ rights won a seat on the St. Paul City Council, outpacing a longstanding homeowner in the city’s northwestern neighborhoods.

Mitra Jalali Nelson, 32, a daughter of Korean and Iranian immigrant parents, has lived in the city for little more than two years, and will be the only renter on the seven-member council.

Joe Mullen, a resident of the Desnoyer Park neighborhood, voted for Nelson first and marked parks advocate Shirley Erstad second on his ranked-choice ballot.

“St. Paul needs … different voices — more voices,” said Mullen, a business manager at a payroll technology firm, standing outside the polling location at the Merriam Park Recreation Center. “I kind of liked Nelson because she’s young and (can speak to) the lower-end of the economic spectrum, and these are the challenges the neighborhood has. She’s a renter rather than a homeowner.”

In St. Paul’s North End and surrounding neighborhoods, longstanding Ramsey County Commissioner Janice Rettman survived a three-way primary, but still struggled at the polls.

Rettman came in a distant second to a DFL-endorsed challenger, Trista MatasCastillo, who had promoted herself as a more progressive choice to represent the city’s low-income urban areas on the county board. Both women will be on the November ballot.

Ramsey County Elections struggled with technical glitches throughout the night that initially produced wildly inaccurate results for precinct returns in the St. Paul Ward 4 race, the races for Roseville mayor and council, and in the Maplewood council race.

As of late Tuesday night, corrected results were as follows:

ST. PAUL CITY COUNCIL

With all 15 precincts reporting, Nelson, the DFL-endorsed candidate and an aide to U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, had 53.7 percent of the vote over Erstad’s 41.3 percent for the Ward 4 seat on the St. Paul City Council.

David Martinez, who was arrested multiple times during his candidacy after verbally accosting librarians at the downtown St. Paul library, physically grappling with Target Field employees, allegedly violating a restraining order two times and a “revenge porn” complaint, received 5 percent of the vote.

In St. Paul’s ranked-choice election system, candidates win if they earn more than 50 percent of the vote.

RAMSEY COUNTY DISTRICT 3

Rettman, who was elected to the county board in early 1997, faced two challengers who promoted themselves as more progressive choices for the office.

Matas Castillo, a legislative aide to County Commissioner Blake Huffman, received 43.7 percent of the vote, and Rettman received 29 percent.

Jennifer Nguyen Moore, who lives in St. Paul’s North End and recently received the support of the state’s Democratic Socialists, garnered 27.2 percent of the vote and will not appear on the November ballot.

RAMSEY COUNTY DISTRICT 5

Ramsey County Commissioner Rafael Ortega took 79 percent of the vote in his political primary, over 12.9 percent for product marketing manager James Jaeger and 8 percent for perennial candidate Charles Barklind.

Ortega, who was the first Latino ever elected to a county board in Minnesota in 1994, will appear on the November ballot with Jaeger.

ROSEVILLE MAYOR, COUNCIL

In the primary race for Roseville mayor, Mayor Dan Roe drew 57 percent of vote and Tammy McGehee drew 35 percent. Both will appear on the November ballot. Brett Rose received 7.3 percent of the vote and will not appear on the November ballot.

Four candidates will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot for Roseville City Council. They are Wayne Groff, with 31 percent; Council Member Bob Willmus, with 26 percent; Jim Bull, with 17 percent; and Dannah Thompson, with 15.8 percent. Also on the primary ballot were Vince Trovato, with 7 percent; and Abel Aaron Nelson, with 3 percent.

MAPLEWOOD COUNCIL

In the race for two at-large seats on the Maplewood City Council, four candidates will advance to the Nov. 6 election. They are Council Member Kathleen A. “Kathy” Juenemann, with 28 percent; Council Member Marylee Abrams, with 24 percent; Nikki Villavicencio, with 18 percent; and Kevin Berglund with 17 percent. A fifth candidate, Tyler Hamilton, received 14 percent.

JUDICIAL RACES

In Ramsey County, three of the five judicial races that will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot held primaries. With 156 of 169 precincts reporting, results were as follows.

In a four-way primary race for the rare open judicial seat in Court 11, civil litigator Scott Michael Flaherty received 38 percent of the vote, and Hennepin County public defender Adam Yang, a past president of the Hmong American Bar Association, received 33.6 percent.

Both men will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot. Former St. Paul NAACP Chair and deputy director of St. Paul’s Human Rights and Equal Economic Opportunity department Jeffry Martin received 17.4 percent, and Ramsey County public defender Gregory Egan IV received 11 percent.

Judge G. Tony Atwal faced challenges from two attorneys in private practice. Atwal, who was appointed to his judicial seat in May 2016, was reassigned from criminal to child protection cases this year following his second DWI arrest and conviction.

On Tuesday, he received 41 percent of the vote, and P. Paul Yang received 32.3 percent. Both men will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot. Elliott Nickell received 26.5 percent.

Also in the primary, Judge Elena Ostby — who was appointed to the bench in August 2004 and elected twice — received 67.4 percent of the vote, and Calandra Revering, a litigator, human resources consultant and mediator based in Robbinsdale, received 17.4 percent. Related Articles Mike Pence and Ivanka Trump visit metro, pushing law-and-order message. Dems: What about the pandemic?

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Both women will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot. Criminal defense attorney Seamus Mahoney received 15.2 percent.