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City clerk briefs council on elections, licensing and absentee‑ballot handling
Summary
City Clerk's Office outlined licensing responsibilities and elections administration, reported staffing levels and absentee ballot counts, and described steps taken after duplicate ballots were sent; council questioned potential poll‑worker reductions and impacts to wait times.
City Clerk staff presented an overview of the Clerk's Office functions at the Oct. 8 Common Council meeting, covering licensing (liquor, entertainment, health licenses, taxi/transportation permits and more), records and contracts routing, lobbyist filings and elections administration.
City clerk staff reported that, as of Oct. 7, the city had 192,338 registered voters, had issued 33,598 absentee ballots and had received 10,696 returned absentee ballots. Staff outlined measures after a recent duplicate‑ballot incident: notification letters to affected voters, barcode sorting and machine checks to identify duplicate returns, and poll‑book safeguards so only the first returned ballot is processed. Deputy clerk Jim explained the operational steps: "We sent letters to each of the affected voters ... and our new sorting machines tell us if a duplicate ballot has been returned."
Alders pressed the clerk's office about staffing and the potential impact of referendum-driven budget cuts. The clerk noted the statutory minimum poll‑worker staffing is five per polling place, and work by clerk staff aims to keep average voter wait times under 15 minutes; the clerk's budget submission warned that a reduction in poll workers could raise the acceptable wait standard to about 30 minutes. Council discussion acknowledged both the difficulty of recruiting and the desire to maintain low voter wait times and accessible hours and locations for early in‑person absentee voting.
What happens next: the clerk's office will provide additional details on minimum staffing, contingency plans if poll‑worker numbers are reduced, and respond to follow-up questions about state funding and election‑day operational details.
