Discuss Update on Anoka County Elections JPA

It was originally planned that Tom Hunt, Anoka County Elections Manger, would be in attendance to meet with City Council on the election related cases this Work Session.  Staff received notice that the County holds a desire to discuss their own election process internally following feedback from some cities within the county.  The county intends to discuss this internally before meeting with cities.

Background: Council briefly discussed the current Anoka County Elections JPA at the September 10, 2024, work session. At that time, it was requested to bring it forward to a future meeting for further discussion. A motion was made at the last meeting on November 12, 2024, to present the agreement of the use of Manual Pollbooks in the City of Ramsey to Anoka County to begin discussions on crafting a new Pollpad Agreement with the County. That proposed agreement is the first attachment. Additional items include our current JPA with Anoka County, the Terminated PollPad Agreement and the City Attorney's Opinion.

Pollbook Background Information:
Since the 2018 Pollpad agreement was signed, the City has not incurred any financial impact in regard to the agreement. The City has not had any pollpads break or get damaged. When the City added another precinct in 2022, the County gave the City additional pollpads at no additional cost. While the agreement was in place, the City maintained possession of the pollpads and prepped them before each election. The City returned the pollpads to the county after the pollpad agreement was terminated on November 12, 2024. The current process for county and above elections, is that the county will deliver the pollpads to each precinct until a new agreement is in place that allows the city to store the pollpads at city hall.  

Paper Roster Process:
The process to mark early voters off of the roster after the rosters have been printed by the County, and before they get deployed to polling locations, includes stamping the books on Saturday after early voting concluded and continuing on Sunday, which in the past City Hall was not open for early voting. With the 2024 changes, City Hall was open for the two Saturdays before the election and the Sunday before the election. The expanded hours apply to State General elections only. The County then sends an update to the city clerk after early voting concludes on Monday evening and before polls open on Tuesday. The city clerk then calls each polling location with a list of additional voters to mark as AB if they voted on Monday or dropped off an absentee ballot on election day. Paper rosters get printed approximately 19 days before the election. In the 2016 general election, 1,945 residents voted early between the time when rosters are printed for deployment and election day. For the 2024 general election, 5,380 residents voted early between when the rosters were printed and election day. That accounts for a 177% increase from 2016 when paper rosters were last utilized in the City.  Based on the direction from the November 12, 2024 City Council meeting, it should be noted that additional election judges will be required in the future to manage necessary updates to the paper rosters following accepted absentee ballots.

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No action, as the county is aware of the formal action by the City Council on November 12, 2024.