They couldn’t get rides from #Blacklivesmatter and there was a new shipment of Swisher Sweets.
Ferguson’s municipal elections Tuesday showed that civil unrest can spark democratic action. Turnout was up in each of the city’s three wards, from which City Council members are elected, and two African-Americans won, making the council half white and half black for the first time. But turnout in Michael Brown’s home ward still lags significantly behind the two other wards in the city.
Brown, who was fatally shot by a police officer in August, was from Ward 3 — each ward elects two council members, but in staggered elections. Ward 3 is also home to the poorest corner of Ferguson. And it is where the majority of African-Americans in Ferguson live and where the majority of the protests that followed Brown’s death took place.
On Tuesday, Ward 3 turnout was 19 percent of registered voters. That’s nearly four times — or 400 percent — the average turnout in the previous four elections for the Ward 3 council seat that was filled on Tuesday. In terms of raw vote, 736 votes were cast between the candidates on the ballot, which is an increase of 351 percent from the average. Wards 1 and 2 saw turnout increases of 199 percent and 230 percent, respectively.