SLP Votes! is a partnership between Friends of the Arts and the City of St. Louis Park exploring what voting means to the St. Louis Park community through creative activities and artwork.
When you vote, you join with your neighbors to help shape your community. Whether you are a homeowner or renter, longtime resident or brand new to St. Louis Park, you can be informed and get involved in local government. Your voice is important—your neighbor’s voice is important. Spread the word that SLP Votes!
For official information on voting in St. Louis Park, visit www.stlouispark.org/vote.
Upcoming Events
September 12, 6:30pm: Community Storytelling Forum: Stories of Voting at the SLP Library
Hear what voting means to a 25-year resident who came to America as a refugee from a war-torn nation run by military dictators, a 17 year old looking forward to casting her first vote, and other St. Louis Park residents with compelling stories of voting.
slp votes! poster and Stickers
Illustration by Xiaojie Liu
Graphic Design by LN Design Co.
Xiaojie Liu, a Twin Cities-based artist from Enshi, China, illustrated a map of St. Louis Park, featuring local landmarks and neighbors getting out to vote. The artwork celebrates some of St. Louis Park’s unique assets—Westwood Hills Nature Center, West End, Nordic Ware, Beth El Synagogue, Minnehaha Creek, beehive ovens, parks and playgrounds, a variety of housing types—all of which help to make St. Louis Park a special place in which to live, work, play, and vote.
St. Louis Park resident and graphic designer Kären Larson and her co-founder of LN Design Co., Ingrid Noble, took Xiaojie’s illustration and created a poster to call attention to the Mayor and City Council election on November 5, 2019, with early voting beginning September 20 at City Hall.
To celebrate perhaps the most iconic part of elections—the “I Voted” sticker—LN Design created a series of SLP Votes! stickers with highlights from the illustration. Keep an eye out around the community for posters and stickers, and spread the word that SLP Votes!
“We are here to promote
that folks get out and vote”
—and other voting quips and poems by st. louis park residents, first presented at the open mic poetry jam on july 23, 2019
voting quips
by diane pecoraro
We are here to promote
that folks get out and vote!
You’re on a roll
when you go the poll!
Let’s all get out,
citizens, we shout!
Step up and huff
when you have had enough!
Taxes, immigration, justice, and so,
to the election polls we must go!
Now you are of voting age,
sign up and mark the ballot page!
Laddies and lassies aye, forsooth,
get ye to the voting booth!
Polling Place
by Diane Pecoraro
The red sticker offered after
declares us members of the “I Voted” club.
Dems, Republicans, Independents—in the same place at the same time,
on the same page so to speak.
We are allied with those who vote in our precinct,
that small area denoted by number and color on the city map.
A stream of citizens signs in:
The first timers just turned 18,
the seniors, some on walkers, veterans of many elections,
the parents with protesting toddlers,
the homeowners, the apartment dwellers,
the new Americans fresh out of their swearing-in ceremonies,
they are first timers too, unsure of the steps.
An active scene: folks hearing instructions, inserting the ballot.
It is over fast. We attach the red sticker,
pleased we have done our civic duty.
A community of neighbors. Most of us meet over fences,
borrow sugar and share lawn mowers,
mind each others’ spaces or children, water the flowers,
plan the night-out potluck.
Still unspoken rumbles gather.
The person up the street might cast a vote unlike mine.
Our opinions challenge and overturn each other.
This is a rallying point until the votes cancel each other out.
Every year we come to the polls. We get a red sticker.
Let us hope that lawn mowers and cups of sugar will reign in rage
in loud and divisive times such as ours.
Paper Ballot
by Lara Cleveland
I like that my vote is on paper
A ballot I can see
A ballot I can feel
Did I check the right box?
Did I check the right box?
Am I sure I checked the right box?
But I didn't check the box
Rather, I filled the oval
Fully and completely, neatly
With the pen on a chain in the booth
I like that my vote is on paper
My pick is a good one
On a ballot I can see
A back-up of my carefully filled oval
In case of a tie, malfunction, mischief, mistake
I like that my vote is on paper
In a folder I carry to the counting machine
One last glimpse of my choice
As it joins all the others
...what about those judges, though?
I couldn’t be more excited
by ava tronson
I haven’t voted yet
I’m seventeen
But I can tell you what I’ve seen
And what i see
Is the room filled with animosity
People divided
Proudly shouting or maybe hiding what they’ve decided
But in the end
They all feel important
They feel they have a voice
They feel they have a choice
Now I may be young and naive
That’s what they tell me but they are the ones who deceive
I am young and easy to sway
so they think they can tell me what I will say
when on the 30th of May
it is suddenly decided
that I have wisened
And I couldn’t be more excited
Lara Cleveland and Ava Tronson are a mother-daughter pair of St. Louis Park residents. Ava, who turns 18 in 2020, looks forward to voting for the first time with her mom, Lara.