Discuss Resolution for Post Election Review and Paper Rosters  

Councilmembers Musgrove and Howell requested a discussion on direction for a resolution including the number of precincts for the Post Election Review (PER) and the use of paper rosters.

Background: The Anoka County Elections Integrity Team presented at the April 23, 2024 work session. The packet they provided is included in the attachments. 

Electronic Roster Authorization:
Ramsey along with all the cities in Anoka County are part of a JPA with Anoka County to administer elections. Minnesota Statute 201.225 Sub.1. gives the head elections official the authority to designate that some or all of the precincts use electronic rosters. For any municipal or school district elections that are held in tandem with county and above elections, that person would be the Anoka County Auditor or the Anoka County Elections Manager. In 2018, the Anoka County Board of Commissioners, and all of the cities, made the decision to begin using electronic rosters. For any county and above elections, poll pads will continue to be used unless the Anoka County Board of Commissioners decides otherwise. 

Paper rosters could be utilized for a municipal special election that is not in conjunction with a county or above election, but would require a number of changes and may not be feasible with current staffing levels. Below are some of the additional items to consider. 

Pre-Election

• The printing of the rosters.
• Manually stamping next to the name of each individual who has voted absentee.
• Ordering additional voter receipts that the voters use to exchange for a ballot (normally these print from the poll pads).
• Preparing new training materials for election judges.
• Training election judges on paper rosters.
• We may want to communicate with the voters to let them know that the special election will look different.

Election Day

• Calling the election judges on election day and throughout to have them stamp any additional names of absentee voters.
  • Recently passed legislation allows voters to drop off their absentee ballot at either City Hall or the County until 8:00pm on election day. On election day, updates are automatically pushed out to the pollpads to inform election judges if a voter has already voted absentee. With absentee voting starting 46 days before the election, this is something that has occurred in the past where a voter forgot they had previously voted early.     
• Voters would no longer be able to stand in any line, the lines would need to be separated by last name.
• Election judges would flip through the rosters to find each voter.

Post-Election

• Manually entering voter history for all voters
• Manually entering election day registrant information

Post-Election Review (PER):
Minnesota Statute 206.89 gives the authority of the Post-Election Review Official to the Anoka County Auditor. The County shared that the idea of expanding the PER to more precincts and races is the subject of conversations that are currently being held at the County. They will be in touch when a decision has been made. During the 2022 Post-Election Review, the County increased the number of precincts to hand count. The Statute required four precincts, and they decided to increase that to six precincts to hand count.
To view the Statewide results from the 2022 Post-Election Review, please visit this link: Minnesota Secretary Of State - Post-election reviews. The Ramsey results are on page 9 of the 2022 Post-Election Review Results (PDF). The Director of Elections for the State of Minnesota, David Maeda, presented to the Sherburne County Board of Commissions on July 12, 2022, the portion discussing the Post-Election review is from 1:00:56-1:05:16, visit this link to view the meeting: 07/12/2022 Sherburne County Board Meeting - YouTube.  

30 minutes

Brian Hagen, City Administrator
Katie Schmidt, City Clerk 

Receive direction on how to proceed.