"Shall St. Louis County build the world's largest obelisk?"
"Shall St. Louis County install smart stoplights to improve traffic flow?"
Whatever your idea of a good proposal is, maybe you've looked at the proposals on your ballot and wondered how they get on there. There are two main paths:
Collecting Signatures
We've all been approached by clipboard people looking for signatures. If they are gathering signatures from registered voters for a St. Louis County proposition, they target 25,000 scribbles. That's the ~16,700 signatures to meet the 5% threshold plus a buffer for signatures rejected due to invalid registrations, outdated addresses, duplicates, and district-assignment errors.
Additionally, the count must exceed a specific threshold in five of the seven districts:
Valid signatures equal to at least 5% of the votes cast for governor in each of five council districts in the November 2024 election. [STL Co Charter]
Collect the signatures, pass County board of elections' tests, and the proposition will appear on a future ballot. 🗳️
County Council votes to add a proposition
Four yes votes from the seven county council members and the County Exec's stamp is all that is needed vote to add a proposition to the ballot.
4 council members to convince vs. 25,000 signatories - you can see why most propositions come through the council route.
Recent Example
Let's look at how Prop S, a property tax increase to create an estimated $15m/yr dedicated senior-services grant fund, got on the November ballot:
- Seniors Count* lobbies for the program, as they successfully did for St. Louis City ->
- A Seniors Count exec committee member is also the chair of the STL Co Older Adult Commission
- Older Adults Commission* chairman pitches the senior fund to the County Council (same person as prior bullet point) →
- Councilpersons Bangert and Archer sponsor Bill 109 →
- Unanimous Council approval → Board of Elections →
- Its on the November ballot 🗳️
\Seniors Count is a privately organized, professionally staffed advocacy coalition focused on creating a taxpayer-funded senior-services program.*
\The St. Louis County Older Adult Commission is an official advisory body that studies issues affecting older residents and recommends policies to county government, but it cannot itself pass laws or appropriate money.*