Agenda - Council - 02/08/2021 - Laserfiche WebLink

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those convicted of a felony who serve the entirety of their sentence in the community and are not incarcerated. If incarcerated, the League of Minnesota Cities supports the restoration of voting rights to those convicted of a felony once they have completed their term of incarceration. This will eliminate the administrative burden of challenging voters at the polls and determining eligibility from various jurisdictions. This will also eliminate the need for investigation by local law enforcement of those who have unknowingly registered to vote or voted before their rights were restored. SD-72. Write-in Candidates in City Elections Issue: For federal, state and county offices, write-in candidates are totaled together as one number for write-in votes. If a candidate wants the write-in votes to be individually recorded, the candidate must file a written request with the Secretary of State no later than seven days before the general or special Election Day. This provides any declared write-in candidate the same provisions for tabulation as a candidate whose name is printed on the ballot. Because this requirement does not exist in city elections, city election officials are required to take considerable time and resources to count and individually record write-in votes cast, many of which are frivolous. Response: The League of Minnesota Cities supports legislation to: a) give cities the option to require that write-in candidates for local elective offices file a formal request with the chief election official at least seven days before the city election if they wish to have their write-in votes individually recorded; and 62 b) allow the city clerk to only compile and report write-in votes for specific candidates if the total number of write-in votes for an office is greater than or equal to the number of votes received by the candidate appearing on the ballot receiving the fewest number of votes. SD-73. Ranked Choice Voting Issue: Current law allows charter cities to consider and adopt Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) as an alternative voting method in local elections. State statute does not extend this authority to statutory cities. Additionally, there are no statewide standards for conducting RCV. The lack of consistent guidelines on how to effectively implement a RCV system imposes significant challenges for election administrators and voters. The Office of the Secretary of State certifies voting systems for cities and counties across the state. This process does not include the systems used for RCV elections. This makes it difficult for cities to access voting systems approved by the state. Minn. Stat. § § 204D.11 and 206.90 require the use of one ballot only for a state general election unless there is a need for a separate judicial ballot. To allow cities that have implemented RCV to hold municipal elections in conjunction with a state general election, state statute must be amended to allow for more than one ballot. Response: The League of Minnesota Cities supports: a) legislation that would give statutory cities the same authority given to charter cities to consider and adopt RCV;