Many Minneapolis residents headed to the polls Tuesday to vote between 17 mayoral candidates, including incumbent Jacob Frey, and a number of questions to amend the city charter in the 2021 municipal election.
The local election has attracted national attention, as the ballot asks residents to vote on replacing the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety, a proposal that came in the wake of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin murder of George Floyd in 2020.
At Westminster Presbyterian Church, the polling location for the neighboring precinct to St. Thomas’ Minneapolis campus, mayoral candidate Troy Benjegerdes said he would like to see the measure passed.
“Public Safety is the one that matters the most this year,” Benjegerdes said. “I think we need a Department of Public Safety, and we need to double the budget of the new Department of Public Safety.”
Minneapolis resident Sara Jane Koste said she “always votes,” but hopes her vote this year will contribute to restructuring public safety.
“What needs to be addressed is also the root causes of some of the violence that’s going on,” Koste said. “And that needs to be a holistic approach that uses deadly force as minimally as humanly possible, if at all.”
Other ballot questions being addressed in Minneapolis are an amendment to shift certain city council powers to the mayor, creating an “executive mayor-legislative council” and a “rent control ordinance” similar to the St. Paul rent stabilization question.
Justin Amaker can be reached at justin.amaker@stthomas.edu.
Derek Badger can be reached at dabadger@stthomas.edu.