Election Day was a long one in Missouri. Even though the polls closed statewide at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, a large turnout meant that as of 9 p.m., there were still people waiting in line to vote. The Missouri Secretary of State's office said that no results would be reported until every vote had been cast in the state.
At the beginning of the week, we set out to write a simple ballot guide, and quickly realized that it was impossible—St. Louis County had a record-breaking ballot in terms of length, and with difficult-to-understand measures like Missouri Proposition D, ours ended up being much longer than anticipated. Luckily, the results we can do short and sweet. Memorize this, and you'll be prepared when someone brings up, say, the fuel tax or the zoo. All the numbers below come from the still-unofficial-yet-all-but-certain Missouri Secretary of State's election results data. Here are the items we highlighted in our ballot guide:
The Biggies
U.S. Senate
Around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, it was announced that incumbent Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, was conceding to Republican Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley. The entire race, polling had been within the margin of error, making it one of the most anticipated returns. As of Wednesday morning, Hawley received 1,245,732 votes, or 51 percent. McCaskill received 1,101,377 votes, or 45 percent.
In 2012, when McCaskill was running for re-election against Republican Todd Akin, she captured more votes than Hawley this year: 1,494,125. (Months before the election, her opponent made the controversial claim that there was such a thing as "legitimate rape.")
Following the concession call from McCaskill, Hawley reportedly received a congratulatory call from President Donald Trump, who was on Monday in Cape Girardeau stumping for Hawley.
Wednesday morning, McCaskill tweeted her thanks to supporters.
U.S. Representative for District 1
Returns showed that, as predicted, Democrat Lacy Clay held on to his seat, receiving 80 percent of votes.
U.S. Representative for District 2
Returns early Tuesday evening showed Democrat Cort VanOstran leading over the three-term Ann Wagner, a Republican. By the end of the night, however, Wagner had overcome his early lead. She won 190,008 votes, or 51 percent of the vote. VanOstran had 174,486 votes, or 47 percent.
For Wagner, this race was quite tight compared to 2016, when she ran for re-election against Democrat Bill Otto. In that race, Wagner captured 58 percent of the vote, or 241,954 votes total. Otto, who served in the state House of Representatives, only had 155,689 votes, or 37 percent. Wagner won by an even larger margin in 2014—she had 64 percent of the vote—against Democrat Arthur Lieber. In 2012, the first year she was elected to the House, she won with 60 percent of the vote.
U.S. Representative for District 3
We previously wrote that there was little prediction that Democrat Katy Geppert, a Democrat, would trounce Republican Blaine Luetkemeyer, and Luetkemeyer did end up winning with 65 percent of the vote.
Missouri state auditor
It wasn't all doom and gloom for Dems, though (well, actually it mostly was). But Democrat Nicole Galloway kept her position as auditor, even though early returns showed Republican Saundra McDowell leading. Galloway captured 50 percent of the vote.
The Amendments and Propositions
Missouri Amendment 1
Aka Clean Missouri, which passed with 61 percent of the vote. Missourians were in favor of redistricting, capping campaign donation limits, and curbing gifts from lobbyists.
Missouri Amendments 2, 3, and Proposition C
Amendment 2, which will see a 4 percent tax on the sale of medical marijuana, passed. See our breakdown on the three ballot initiatives here. Also find out what happens now that Missourians have weighed in on legalizing medical marijuana.
Missouri Amendment 4
Missourians—52 percent—voted yes on removing language limiting bingo advertising.
Missouri Proposition B
Good news: Missourians supported a hike in the minimum wage, from $7.85 an hour to $8.60 an hour, starting in January. Hourly workers will receive an 85-cent-per-hour increase each year until 2023. At that point, the minimum wage will be $12 an hour.
Missouri Proposition D
This is the 27-cent fuel tax with a bunch of other stuff—police, medals—tacked on. The money would have gone to the roads, but Missourians gave a resounding no. Fifty-three percent were no votes.
St. Louis County Proposition Z
St. Louis County voted yes on raising the sales tax one-eighth of 1 percent, with the extra money going toward the zoo as well as a new facility in North County. When that one opens, St. Louis County residents will get free admission.
Stuff that’s tempting to breeze through, but you didn’t
Judges
Missourians voted to retain Associate Circuit Judge Barbara Peebles (22nd circuit), even though an independent committee rated her as the only one of 59 state judges to not meet judicial performance standards. Voters gave the boot to Associate Judge Judy Draper, however, whom the Post-Dispatch recommended against retaining as well.
St. Louis School Board
Donna R. Jones and Joyce M. Roberts are the new members of the board.
And finally, stuff we wish we didn’t have to vote on
St. Louis County Executive
If you'll remember, the St. Louis-Post Dispatch called Democrat Steve Stenger the “least-bad option on the ballot.” Well, another bad option came quite close to beating him. Republican Paul Berry won 37 percent of the vote; Stenger, 56 percent.
