Elections have consequences, as they say. So do snowstorms. Mayor Tishaura Jones’ muted showing in St. Louis’ mayoral primary Tuesday was very likely in part a referendum on the city’s handling of January’s extended Snowmageddon.

Going into the April 8 general election, that should stand as a reminder for repeat runoff candidates Jones and Alderwoman Cara Spencer that, for all the ideological brinkmanship that tends to define municipal politics these days, running a city still comes down to the basics: filling potholes, providing police protection, collecting the trash and, yes, plowing the snow.

Jones ultimately acknowledged that the city’s response to the snow was lacking and vowed improvement. That might include rethinking and revamping snow-removal protocol that was in place before her administration; the city’s historically hands-off approach to side streets may be inadequate in modern climate trends.

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Those kinds of forward-looking debates are worth having in the coming weeks. St. Louis deserves a constructive, positive campaign addressing nuts-and-bolts topics — but also debating deeper socio-economic issues such as North Side redevelopment, the rescue of Downtown, the proper use of Rams settlement money and, more broadly, the proper role of city government in residents’ lives.

These two candidates have staked out often-divergent positions on these and other issues and both have reasonable arguments to make. Voters next month should reward them (or not) based not only on the strength of those arguments but also on how constructive they are in making them. If there’s one thing most voters today should be able to agree upon, it’s that the toxicity that infuses too much of modern politics isn’t good for anyone.

Jones made the top-two runoff for the April 8 general election, but by only about 2,000 votes more than long-shot third-place finisher Michael Butler, the city's recorder of deeds. It was a notable turn of fortune for a first-term mayor who four years ago beat Spencer in the primary and then defeated her again in the general election on a groundswell of progressive support.

Spencer racked up more than double Jones’ vote total Tuesday in part by zeroing in on the city’s handling of those nuts-and-bolts issues. They are fair targets. And just as snow removal is a valid issue in the campaign, so is the wider vision that each of the candidates offers.

The city’s “approval voting” primary process, in use here for the second time, might be worth revamping as well. It allows voters to choose as many candidates as they want, with the two top finishers running off in the general election. Unlike ranked-choice voting, there’s no ranking, just votes for multiple candidates, if that’s what the voter wants.

The nonpartisan process was ushered in by referendum before the 2021 election to replace a partisan-primary system that made general elections a rubber-stamp joke in this overwhelmingly Democratic city. A nonpartisan runoff primary still makes sense, but remind us again: What is the point of allowing multiple votes without ranking, other than to spawn cynical strategic voting and confusion?

In any case, the new process has apparently done nothing to encourage higher voter turnout. Only about 48,000 St. Louis voters came out Tuesday. That’s about 20,000 fewer than in 2021, when the city's population was larger.

In all, it was less than an 18% turnout — dismal even by usually low primary election standards. Just as the two remaining mayoral candidates owe it to the voters to offer constructive visions for the city’s future, those voters owe the city their attention in the coming campaign.

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