Item 6: Ordinance Revising Elections Code

Home Browse Search

sufficiency, about the ballot title appeal process, and about continuing to allow council discretion as to whether to publish a voters’ pamphlet if there is a City measure. Requested Changes A few of the changes suggested at the work session seemed to have unanimous agreement from the councilors present, so rather than draft motions for those changes, staff simply included them in the proposed revisions. The suggested changes included in the proposed revisions are as follows: 1.The definitions of “ballot title,” “election,” “special election” and “emergency election” were added to section 2.961; 2.Section 2.994 now requires that if conflicting measures appear on the ballot they are identified as such in the voters’ pamphlet, and requires that the voters’ pamphlet contain an explanation of the effect of conflicting measures; and 3.Section 2.994 now clarifies the order in which the arguments will be published in the voters’ pamphlet. At the work session it was requested that staff clarify the term “immediately” in proposed subsection 2.973(2). The first motion in the attachment allows the council to substitute the phrase “as soon as possible” for the term “immediately.” This action typically takes less than 15-20 minutes and can be done in the presence of the person filing. Defining the time allowed more explicitly in code could easily lead to unintentional code violations should the person choose not to wait in the office while the act was completed or should the City Recorder be out of the office briefly and the petitioner opted to simply drop off the document. The second motion in Attachment C amends the Code to require that the City Manager publish a voters’ pamphlet any time a City measure is on the ballot. The third motion amends the Code to require that the City Manager publish a voters’ pamphlet any time a candidate for City Council, Mayor or the EWEB Board wants to publish a candidate statement in the City voters’ pamphlet – even if there are no City measures on the ballot. The fourth motion amends the Code to require EWEB to pay a proportional share of the cost of publication of a voters’ pamphlet where EWEB candidate statements are included in the voters’ pamphlet and there are no City measures on the ballot. The fifth motion amends the Code to require that the City mail voters’ pamphlets not later than th the 18 day before an election. The sixth motion amends the Code to require that a candidate for City office be registered to vote at the time his or her nominating petition is submitted to the City Recorder. This motion was not th requested by the council at the February 11 work session. However, recent conversations between staff and Lane County Elections identified the possibility that under current Code, a candidate could neglect to register to vote prior to the election at which he or she was elected to office. If that happened, the candidate would be disqualified from holding City office and the office to which the candidate was elected would be left vacant. This proposed amendment closes that loophole. F:\CMO\2008 Council Agendas\M080310\S0803106.DOC