As part of the St. Louis Workers’ Education Society’s Four Wards Forward program Shuron Jones and Niles Zee headed-up the WES Votes program in our service communities, Wards 8, 9, 15 and 20.
In all, the WES Votes program mobilized dozens of volunteers to register over 500 people to vote in these Wards, helping to increase voter turnout for St. Louis’ August primary and the November general election.
In fact, our efforts were so successful that newly elected committee, ward and state rep. leaders recognized WES publicly, crediting us with leading the charge, specifically in low-turnout precincts in Wards 8 and 20.
For example, WES member and State Rep. Peter Merideth (80th District) praised WES’s work on Facebook as the St. Louis Democratic Central Committee celebrated a new record for single month registrations. 8th Ward Committee-people Paul Fehler and Annie Rice, as well as Alderwoman Cara Spencer and Committeewoman Madeline Buthod (14th Ward), also thanked WES for its outstanding voter registration efforts.
Moving forward, WES leader, Shuron Jones, is now heading-up the 2017 WES Votes campaign in Ward 9, where the current Alderman voted against the minimum wage increase. While WES cannot and does not endorse candidates, every registered voter in Ward 9 will know where Ortmann stands when it comes to raising working families out of poverty