I expect TNR’s Jamil Smith will give us a deeper read at some point today or tomorrow. But for now, it appears Ferguson, Missouri’s, city elections yesterday produced a mixed bag of results. Yes, two more African-Americans were elected to the city council in three contests, and yes, voter turnout more than doubled from the last election there. But it still came in at 30%, which is a bit short of overwhelming, and both of the candidates backed by coalitions of protesters against police practices in the city lost.
On the turnout front, heavy thunderstorms yesterday morning may have had an effect. And both the victorious African-American candidates stand for significant changes in how the city operates (the winning white candidate, former mayor Brian Fletcher, best known for hawking “I Love Ferguson” t-shirts at the height of the recent controversies, maybe not so much). So it’s an important moment for Ferguson, and at least a partial indicator that despair wasn’t again the electoral winner.
