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City attorney explains overvotes and undervotes after special election certification
Summary
The commission's legal representative described overvotes (conflicting selections) and undervotes (skipped questions) as reasons for variance in totals; commissioners noted resident confusion about measures related to department heads and police reorganization.
During the brief special session, the commission's legal representative offered a plain-language explanation for differences between item vote totals: overvotes occur when a voter selects conflicting choices and undervotes occur when a voter skips a question.
"My understanding is an overvote are are votes where people voted for maybe both of them. They might have voted yes and no, you know. And then the same and under votes are people who skipped it," he said, adding that undervotes often exceed overvotes and can explain why some questions show fewer recorded votes.
Commissioners said they had received calls from residents asking whether particular measures would affect the police department or department heads. One commissioner and the legal representative suggested that two of the lower-scoring measures likely related to department-head organization and police-department reorganization, which may have caused voter uncertainty prior to the election.
