Minutes - Charter Commission - 02/13/2019

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Chairperson Field stated that ranked choice voting could be a session in itself and therefore he would like to redirect the conversation tonight on simply reviewing Chapter 4. Commissioner Sivertson stated that the instant runoff voting gets rid of the need for primary elections. Chairperson Field stated that topic is somewhat controversial and therefore he would suggest abstaining from that discussion tonight. City Attorney Langel stated that he would also suggest additional public input prior to discussion of that topic. He moved back to the section related to primary elections and suggested that the decision be made to remove the need for primary elections all together, simply clean up the language, or at least remove the requirement for a primary election during special elections. He explained that attempting to fit a primary election into a special election creates a mess and lengthens the process. Commissioner Anderson asked if most charter cities use a primary election. City Attorney Langel replied that most charter cities choose not to have primary elections. He stated that if there is not a primary election, then you would simply follow regular State law and if there are four candidates, you simply end up with four candidates on the ballot. Commissioner Bendtsen stated that he does not see a need for a primary election. Commissioner Fuhreck stated that he believes that the primary election would be important for the regular election process but would agree to eliminate primaries for special elections. He stated that he does not see holding primaries for a regular election as a problem but agreed that the process would be unnecessary and lengthens the special election process. Commissioner Leistico stated that considering the size of Ramsey and the fact that this would be a non-partisan office, she does not see the need for primary elections. She did not believe that the extra expense is worth narrowing the candidate pool from three candidates to two. Commissioner Sivertson asked if there is an added cost to have a primary election. City Clerk Thieling stated that the City has held primary elections and there is an added cost, equal to running two complete elections as the primary is treated the same as the general election. She stated that if the primary were left only for regular election years, the cost would be fairly low as there would already be a primary for the other general election offices and therefore that additional cost would only be printing. Chairperson Field asked the percentage of turnout of voters for the last few special elections and primaries. Charter Commission/February 13, 2019 Page 3 of 11