What is Proposition D?

Prop D reforms St. Louis City elections to put the people in charge. Our city needs strong, bold, visionary leadership to thrive--and that starts with elected officials who have broad support from the electorate. This November, City residents will be able to vote to change the way that we elect key public officials-- our Mayor, Comptroller, Aldermen/Alderwomen, and President of the Board of Aldermen. Prop D makes three changes to our voting process:

First, it creates a nonpartisan primary, meaning that you get to vote on ALL of the candidates, not just the ones affiliated with your political party.



Second, implementing approval voting means that you have the ability to approve--or disapprove--of every candidate on the ballot. Rather than just voting for one individual, you can choose all of the candidates that you would find to be acceptable to hold the office.



Finally, the two candidates with the most votes in the primary election advance to a meaningful run-off race in the general election.

In practice, voting will still feel very familiar to us. We'll still fill in ovals on our ballots; the main change (in the March primary) is how many ovals we'll be allowed to fill out. Instead of being told to 'Vote for ONE candidate' we'll simply be told to 'Vote for ALL the candidates you approve of.'

It's like giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down to each of the candidates instead of just one.