Minutes - Council - 09/12/2023 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Councilmember Musgrove aye Councilmember Riley aye Councilmember Howell aye Councilmember Olson aye Councilmember Woestehoff aye Councilmember Specht aye Mayor Kuzma aye Motion carried. 7.02: Adopt Resolution #23-204 for Counting Write-In Votes for Local Elective Office - Please Note: this case was pulled from Consent 5.12 to become Case 7.2 on the Regular Agenda. Councilmember Musgrove shared that she requested this item be removed from the Consent Agenda as she wanted to have more discussion on this. She asked if this would affect the Charter. She noted that she has not heard that counting votes has been an issue in the past. She stated that she is not sure what they would need to make this change to require that anyone who is written in on the ballot needs to have given notice to the City beforehand. City Administrator Hagen requested that City Attorney Knaak looks into the Charter regulations to see if this needs to be run through the Charter. He explained that up until this year, Staff was required to count all write-in tallies, even if it is a vote that someone made in a joking manner. He noted that statute did address this for higher offices. He shared that this will help eliminate unnecessary steps on election night or the days following. He noted that this also can address someone who is running a write-in campaign but does not file their affidavit of candidacy. Councilmember Woestehoff commented that the write-in candidate portion saying that they need to report to the election official has been law for a while now. He noted that the only thing that is changing is the ability to not have to count these votes. Councilmember Musgrove stated that if someone is running a write-in campaign then there is no way that they could win if their votes would not be counted. Councilmember Woestehoff said yes and added that if they did not provide notice to the election official then it would be an up for debate election based on the current statute. City Attorney Knaak stated that this statute supersedes any requirement that the City may otherwise have. He noted that he would anticipate that most of the election process is at some level filtered through the Charter. He shared that the statute says that if the governing body of a statutory or home rules charter city adopts the resolution. He noted that this applies to both charter cities as well as statutory cities. He stated that if they decide to do this resolution then this resolution will supersede any contrary provision in the Charter. Councilmember Riley noted that anytime there is an election there are tons of dates involved for all candidates. He stated that he does not see an issue with having a deadline to let the City know City Council / September 12, 2023 Page 8 of 10