06-06-2006 Charter Commission Regular Meeting 1
Minutes of the Hopkins Charter Commission
June 6, 2006
The Hopkins Charter Commission met on June 6. Present were Commission members
Dorothy Boen, Roger Gross, Fran Hesch, Steve Lewis, Bob Miller, Jerre Miller and Emily
Wallace-Jackson.
The meeting was brought to order at 6:36 p.m. by the Chair of the Commission, Roger Gross.
Approval of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting
Commissioner Bob Miller asked for a clarification of the discussion regarding what to do with
ballots where the voter skipped a rank on the ballot. For example, when voting for two Council
Members, a voter chooses the two first choices and then chooses a candidate for Alternate #2 but
leaves Alternate #1 blank. After discussion the Commission reconfirmed that the voter would be
given a chance to correct the ballot but if submitted such a ballot would be treated the same as if
the voter had made no Alternative choices.
Commissioner Boen moved and Commissioner Hesch seconded the motion to approve the
minutes of the April 25, 2006 meeting. The motion was approved unanimously.
Old Business
Ranked Ballot Voting
Mr. Genellie presented a revised draft of the proposed Charter amendment ordinance. The
Commission discussed the various sections of the proposed ordinance.
Commissioner Bob Miller initiated a discussion of section 4.04 (a)
If a ranked-choice ballot gives equal rank to two or more candidates, the ballot
shall be declared exhausted at the point of the ballot when such multiple rankings
are reached.
Commissioner Bob Miller argued that this should be considered an invalid ballot. Other
Commissioners argued that as long as the equal ranking occurred after there was a valid ranking,
for example if the voter voted for one candidate as the first choice and two candidates as the
second choice, that the vote for the first choice candidate should be counted.
Commissioner Bob Miller moved and Commissioner Jerre Miller seconded a motion that
whenever a ballot gives equal rank to two or more candidates, that ballot should be declared
invalid.
Commissioner Boen, Nay; Commissioner Gross, Nay; Commissioner Hesch, Nay;
Commissioner Lewis, Nay; Commissioner Bob Miller, Aye; Commissioner Jerre Miller, Aye;
Commissioner Wallace-Jackson, Nay. The motion failed.
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Commissioner Bob Miller said that he thought that the wording in Section 4.04 (d) was
confusing. After a brief discussion, the Commission decided on the following changes to this
section:
(d) This process of eliminating candidates a candidate and transferring their
votes the votes of that candidate to the next-ranked continuing candidates shall be
repeated until a candidate receives a majority of the votes from the continuing
ballots or there is only one continuing candidate.
The Commission then discussed the issue of separate implementation of ranked ballot voting for
single seat elections, such as the Mayor, versus multiple seat elections, such as the City Council.
Mr. Genellie reviewed the arguments for separate implementation: i.e. that part of the difficulty
of implementing RBV is the cost of either acquiring new voting machines or reprogramming
existing voting machines. It is possible that other jurisdictions might adopt RBV, thus making
implementation less costly. However, if the other jurisdictions adopt RBV and their machines are
only programmed for single seat elections, the City of Hopkins could still experience significant
costs in programming machines for multiple seat elections.
One argument against separate implementation would be that the Mayor would be elected using
ranked ballot voting while the Council Members would be elected by plurality.
Commissioner Gross asked for a motion on the question. Commissioner Hesch moved and
Commissioner Bob Miller seconded a motion to give the City Council the option to have a
separate implementation of Ranked Ballot Voting for single seat elections. The motion was
approved unanimously.
The Commission then discussed the next steps to be taken. After discussion, Commissioner Bob
Miller moved and Commissioner Hesch seconded a motion to present the draft ordinance to the
City Council at the next available Worksession, with the understanding that if the Council finds
no significant issues with the ordinance, the Charter Commission would reconvene to adopt a
resolution recommending the adoption of an ordinance that would amend the City Charter to
allow Ranked Ballot Voting. The motion was approved unanimously.
Adjournment
Commissioner Jerre Miller moved and Commissioner Bob Miller seconded a motion to adjourn.
The meeting adjourned by unanimous consent.