2017.08.16 Special Budget Meeting Agenda C

Home Browse Search

CITY OF NEW BRIGHTON STRATEGIC PLAN 2018 Service Description The City Clerk administers state, federal and local elections in the City of New Brighton. This includes contracting with facilities to use as polling locations, recruiting, hiring and training a sufficient number of election judges, managing absentee balloting and health care facility voting activities, equipment testing, complying with legal notification requirements, assembling supplies and materials and managing all election return paperwork. It also includes working with Ramsey County Elections and the MN Secretary of State’s Office to ensure that New Brighton’s elections are administered in compliance with all state statutes, state rules and state-wide best practices to guarantee accuracy, integrity and consistency. Proposed Changes to Service Level or Revenues In 2018, the City will be administering a State Primary Election in August and a State General Election in November. We will continue to use and train election judges to use, the new ballot counters and ADA compliant election equipment that all cities in Ramsey County purchased in 2016. Staff will continue to make a concerted effort on election judge recruitment to continue to build a more diverse group of qualified poll workers so when New Brighton voters walk into their polling places, they see poll workers who reflect our community. Legislation passed in 2016 allows for an alternate absentee voting process in the seven days before Election Day, allowing MN voters to experience a form of early voting. Additional legislation will be considered in the 2018 session that would allow this process to be available during the entire 46 day absentee voting period for every election and it is expected that this will pass. Absentee voter turnout in 2016 was nearly triple what the City has seen in the past. This kind of absentee activity was not an anomaly as it is consistent with trends seen in other states that have adopted an early voting process. It is anticipated that cities will see 20 – 30% of all ballots cast in the 2018 election done through the absentee balloting process, even if the legislature does not extend the alternate voting (early voting) period. Wait times in the two weeks before Election Day extended to 1 – 1 ½ hours although we had 10 election judges and 2 staff members administering the processes in 2016. Accordingly, absentee voting activities will also likely need to be conducted in a different City building as City Hall facilities will not be able to accommodate this number of people given the anticipated expansion of the License Bureau. Legislation also passed in 2016 makes the state – and by proxy, cities - responsible for conducting Presidential Caucuses beginning in 2020. This will add a third election whose date will be determined by political parties. It is expected that this will likely take place in early February 2020 with any 46-day absentee voting period beginning around the 2019 Holiday ELECTIONS 14