03-11-2015 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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remained the same. True in-person early voting is a process similar to what occurs in a voting precinct on election day. All that being said, based on my experience as the Election Administrator for the City, the implementation of early in-person voting would be a more efficient process, would be less costly to the City, and would ensure that a voter has an opportunity to correct any mistakes on their ballot before leaving City Hall, The process would be similar to what happens in a voting precinct when a voter inserts his/her ballot into the vote tabulator and it is rejected. In that case and under the early in-person voting, the election judge can read the error message on the vote tabulator, tell the voter what the problem is, issue them a new ballot so that they can correct their error. It should be noted that the City trains several of its staff members as election judges, therefore, these staff members are qualified to handle both mailed and in-person voting. The pending legislation will only impact the process for in-person voting, and voters that opt to participate in early voting through the mail will have to utilize the same envelopes and processing procedures that are currently in place. 1 would urge the City Council to pass the resolution in support of the establishment of a true early voting process. Such a process would be more efficient for both the City and voters and would be less costly. I believe there would be less absentee voting through the mail and more in- person early voting once voters realize that there will be much less red tape involved in the process and a more efficient way to ensure that any ballot errors they might make could be quickly and conveniently corrected. For your information, Ramsey County is recommending that cities utilize 2008 numbers for absentee voting and increase those numbers by 50% when planning for the 2016 Presidential Election. During 2008, Little Canada processed 680 absentee ballots, or 12% of those voting. Therefore, the 2016 absentee ballot estimate is 1,020. Please remember that during 2008, voters needed a reason to vote by absentee ballot, which is no longer the case currently. So even if early voting is not implemented for 2016, it would be reasonable to assume that our absentee ballot numbers will increase.