Highland Park residents Dave and Dianne Potter checked in at Ramsey County’s Plato Building on Friday to cast early “No” votes on St. Paul’s trash collection referendum.

A few minutes earlier, David Christiansen, who lives not far from Highland, did the same but voted “Yes.” His wife Susan also cast an absentee ballot but kept her thoughts on garbage to herself.

One thing they agreed on, though, is that St. Paul’s controversial five-year contract with a series of trash haulers has motivated everyday residents to vote in what otherwise might have been a sleepy off-year election.

Ramsey County Elections reports that absentee voting, which began Sept. 20, is coming in hot in St. Paul, with more than triple the returns collected by the same time four years ago.

“It’s obviously the garbage,” said David Christiansen, a St. Paul homeowner since 1977. “They complained because there’s too many gosh-darn trucks and now they’re complaining because there’s not enough? I voted for ‘Yes.’ ”

For Dave Potter, the hottest thing on the ballot isn’t the 10-person St. Paul School Board race or the 28-person City Council election, though those have also raised strong feelings throughout the city. The biggest issue? “The trash,” he said.

“I think the contract is wrong,” added Dianne Potter, who felt residents’ concerns were ignored before the city signed a five-year contract with trash haulers in 2017. “If it’s not told very strongly ‘No’ to the leaders of the city, they’re just going to pay no attention the next time something comes up. And we’re paying for it.”

As of Oct. 20, 2015, the elections office had received 396 absentee ballots from St. Paul voters and 221 from the rest of the county.

This year, as of Tuesday, city residents had turned in 1,262 ballots — a 219 percent increase. Early suburban ballots totaled 571, up 158 percent.

St. Paul residents can vote early by mail or in person at the Plato Building. St. Anthony residents also can vote in person in their city.

On Tuesday, Ramsey County will add seven more early voting locations across St. Paul and Roseville, Shoreview and White Bear Lake, allowing county residents to vote in person, even on Saturday. Ramsey County voters can cast ballots at any early voting location through Nov. 4 — the day before the election — regardless of their home address.

“Greater adoption, availability and acceptance of early voting of all types could help explain an increase in early votes cast at this point in time relative to four years ago,” said Ramsey County Auditor Chris Samuel. “It doesn’t explain why the rate of change is higher in St. Paul than in the suburbs.”

BY THE NUMBERS

While “Vote No,” and to a much lesser degree “Vote Yes,” signs have proliferated across the city, county elections officials caution that St. Paul’s ballot referendum on Ordinance 18-39 isn’t the only draw for early voters and doesn’t at all explain the voter uptick in the suburbs.

“Early voting is a more popular choice now that more people are aware of it,” said Ramsey County spokesman John Siqveland, noting that the state’s 2013 “No Excuses” legislation allows voters to cast ballots early without a written explanation.

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Trump expected to announce conservative Amy Coney Barrett for court “People appear to like voting in person — and a significant share will do so early if they are aware that the option is close by,” Siqveland said. “And ‘close by’ options are better for St. Paul residents than they are for suburban residents simply due to the location of the Plato Building at the southern part of both the city and county.”

By this time four years ago, Ramsey County had already opened early voting locations in Maplewood and New Brighton. This year, St. Anthony has the busier ballot.

In St. Paul, which abandoned political primaries for city council elections years ago, 20 candidates emerged for seven council seats in 2015. Only three races were considered at all competitive, and incumbents won two of them. Two candidates (Chris Tolbert in Ward 3 and Jane Prince in Ward 7) ran uncontested.

This year, every seat is contested, and the 28 candidates have emerged from all walks of life, with several bringing greater financial backing and organizational prowess than four years ago. Their diversity is both striking and unprecedented, and could activate sometimes sleepy corners of the electorate.

They include three Hmong candidates, a Somali-American refugee, a transgender man, several candidates with openly conservative leanings, and several African-American and Latina women with a history of grassroots activism.

Candidates such as David Thom in Ward 7 and Patricia Hartmann in Ward 3 have been praised or criticized as single-issue or near-single-issue candidates because of their unwavering focus on the trash issue, which could attract voters from either side of the debate.

A diverse pool of 10 candidates for St. Paul school board figures to draw new energy. With just three DFL-endorsed candidates for four seats, there’s greater uncertainty than usual over the outcome of the race.

TRASH A CITYWIDE ISSUE

St. Paul’s ballot referendum is truly a citywide issue.

The five-year residential trash contract applies to single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes. However, if direct billing is eliminated as a result of a majority “No” vote on Ordinance 18-39, city officials have said the $27 million in costs will be shifted to every property taxpayer in the city, even large apartment buildings and small businesses.

In other words, everyone from low-income renters to neighborhood pizza shops would be affected.

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Man, 38, dies of apparent natural causes at Ramsey County jail Proponents of the “Vote No” option believe, however, there may yet be an out, such as reopening the contract to negotiate allowed cart sharing, while using taxpayer funds to cover the resulting contract losses.

Curious what’s on your ballot? The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office maintains a polling place finder online that also allows voters to review sample ballots. Visit pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us.

Josh Verges contributed to this report.