St. Paul residents cast their votes Tuesday in the local city council and school board elections. Macalester students voted in Wards 1, 3 and 4.

In Ward 1, located northeast of Summit and Snelling Avenues, Bao Vang, one of two Hmong candidates on the ballot, lost to Debbie Montgomery in a close race for the city council seat. Montgomery won 56 percent of the votes and edged out Vang by fewer than 400 votes. In Ward 3, the district in which Macalester and most of the area to the south and southwest of it is located, incumbent council member Pat Harris won the race, garnering 73.6 percent of the vote and defeating Eve Stein by 3000 votes. Incumbent council member Jay Benanav of Ward 4, which is located northwest of Summit and Snelling Avenues, was re-elected with over 75 percent of the vote.

Continuing a trend of active civic involvement, the 16 precincts of Ward 3 turned out 6,642 voters, more than any other city council ward in the city.

Macalester students turned out to vote at the Macalester/Plymouth United Church despite the chilly weather.

Andrew Riely ’05 was one student who voted. “We’re lucky to live in a country like this and I take the responsibility of being a citizen seriously,” he said.

Electoral rules provide for Election Day on-site voter registration for all Minnesota residents. Colleges may provide a list of students to election officials that will provide the proof needed for students to register on-site, as long as they show their student ID cards. Macalester provides such a list, which allows students to vote easily.

“I feel a social obligation,” Charlotte Ridge ’04 said. “I didn’t used to vote in Minnesota because I didn’t feel like a citizen here. But I’ve decided to abandon Nebraska and embrace my new homeland.”

Other Macalester students carried different agendas into voting on Tuesday.

“I’m voting because today we learned that 90 percent of the Fundamentalist Christians vote while only an abysmal number of Democrats vote,” Ninya Loeppky ’06 said. “I’m fighting the Fundamental Christians.”

While many Macalester students expressed a feeling of obligation to vote, some simply decided to vote because they enjoy it.

“I like to vote because my mother taught me to vote when I was little and I got the stickers and I liked pressing out the little holes,” Sasha Jorgensen-Muga ’07 said. “That was fun.”

There were several tight races in other parts of the city as well. In an extremely tight race for Ward 2, located in the general region of downtown St. Paul, Dave Thune and Christine Nelson battled for an open seat left by current councilman Chris Coleman. With all precincts reporting, Thune defeated Nelson by only 74 votes. Nelson has the option to call for a hand recount of the 5,313 ballots cast for city council in Ward 2.

A five-way race for Ward 5, in northern St. Paul, amounted to a tight race between Kris Reiter and Lee Helgen. The seat was left open after incumbent city councilman Jim Reiter, Kris’ father, died suddenly on Oct. 7 from complications from a heart attack.

Reiter’s bid to represent her father’s ward, however, was defeated by Helgen. Helgen won on a plurality with 38.1 percent of the vote to Reiter’s 32.1 percent.

Ward 6 City Councilman Dan Bostrom ran unopposed for the Ward 6 seat, also located in northeastern St. Paul. The only incumbent woman on the city council easily won re-election to the Ward 7 seat, located in eastern St. Paul. Kathy Lantry defeated Chris Moua with 72.6 percent of the vote.

Four at-large seats for the St. Paul School Board were also up for election this cycle. Macalester hosted the eight candidates for school board in a debate on Oct. 30 in the Weyerhauser Chapel.

Anne Carroll easily came in first with 19,409 votes. Kazoua Kong-Thao, one of two Hmong candidates on Tuesday’s ballot, also won a seat on the school board. Al Oertwig and Tom Conlon filled out the remaining school board seats.