Municipal Elections

• The Primary Municipal Election in the City of St. Louis is held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March in each odd-numbered year.
• The General Municipal Election in the City of St. Louis is held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in April in each odd-numbered year.

Filing Dates

• Filing for municipal offices opens at 8:00 A.M. on the date that is 100 days prior to the date of the applicable Primary Municipal Election.
• Filing for municipal offices closes at 5:00 P.M. on the date that is 60 days prior to the date of the applicable Primary Municipal Election.
• A person who files a Declaration of Candidacy for a Primary Municipal Election may withdraw as a candidate up to 5:00 P.M. on the date that is 40 days prior to the date of such Primary Municipal Election.

Offices to be Filled

• A mayor, comptroller and an alderman/woman from each odd-numbered ward will be elected at the General Municipal Election held in April, 2009, and every four years thereafter.
• A president of the Board of Aldermen and an alderman/woman from each even-numbered ward will be elected at the General Municipal Election held in April, 2011, and every four years thereafter.

Filing Requirements

Candidates for municipal office must file:

• A written declaration stating the candidate’s full name and address, the office for which he/she is running, the party upon whose ticket he/she will run, and that, if nominated and elected to such office, he/she will qualify.
• A filing fee equal to one percent (1%) of the annual salary of the office for which he/she is a candidate. Declarations and filing fees are filed with the Board of Election Commissioners. If a candidate prefers, however, he/she may file his/her filing fee with the treasurer of the city central committee of the political party upon whose ticket he/she plans to run as a candidate, obtain a receipt therefor, and file such receipt with the Election Board at the same time he/she files his/her declaration papers.

Independent Candidates

A person who desires to run for municipal office as a non-partisan or independent candidate must pay the applicable filing fee to the Office of the City Treasurer, obtain a receipt therefor, and file the receipt with the Election Board at the same time he/she files his/her declaration papers. A non-partisan/independent candidate must also file with the Election Board a nominating petition signed by registered voters of the city equal in number to at least two percent (2%) of the entire vote cast at the last preceding mayoral election. The deadline to file such a petition is the eighth Monday prior to the applicable General Municipal Election.

The number of votes cast in the last preceding Mayoral Election (April 2, 2013) was 24,311, and 2% of that number is 487.  Section 2.08.330 of the St. Louis City Municipal Code, which contains the requirements for nonpartisan/independent candidate filing, does not contain a provision for a lower number of signatures for aldermanic candidates.  Therefore, the above number (487) applies to both ward and citywide nonpartisan/independent candidates.