#4 Consolidate February primary and April general elections in the Fall (File Res. #2011-771)
CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE MEMORANDUM
February 15, 2011
TO: City Council
FROM:Rebecca Smith, Management Assistant
SUBJECT: Action on a resolution supporting the elimination of the February primary
and the April general election in favor of Consolidating Elections in the
Fall. (File Resolution No. 2011-771)
Request
At the December 12, 2010 council meeting, Councilmembers Brunner, McDonald and
Rashkin requested the Administration draft a resolution in support of moving the
February primary and the April general election to take place in the fall.
Recommendation
No recommendation from staff.
City Manager Recommendation
The City Manager recommends that if the Council supports a Resolution to the
legislature that would support eliminating Spring Elections in favor of Fall elections, that
it would also support that Fall election occur annually in order to maintain having half of
the City Council and other local legislative bodies elected every other year.
Suggested Motion
I move to approve resolution 2011-771 in support of eliminating the February primary
and the April general election in favor of consolidating the elections in the Fall.
Background
Elections in the State of Wisconsin currently take place in the spring (February primary,
April general election) and the fall (September primary, November general election).
Spring elections are held for non-partisan offices every year, such as judicial, city
council or school board races. Fall elections are currently held for partisan positions in
even years, such as Congress, Assembly or county elected official races. The state
holds partisan elections only in even-numbered years, while non-partisan elections take
place every year.
In Janesville, the Clerk-Treasurer Division organizes 1-4 elections depending on the
year. The Clerk’s Office estimates the variable costs to implement a spring primary is
$15,000, while a spring general election has about $20,000 in variable costs. The
spring election tends to draw fewer voters, particularly the February primary, in
comparison to the annual fall elections. Attachment 1 outlines voter participation during
the last four years. The Clerk’s Office is required to complete several mandatory
activities for each election, including poll worker training; voter machine testing;
organizing the polling places; accounting for absentee balloting; administration of the
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Election Day activities; and completing the follow up work necessary for the
Government Accountability Board. Under the current system, all of these activities must
take place no matter the turnout or number of ballot items.
Logistics of Eliminating Spring Elections
There are a few concepts that should be considered when determining whether
eliminating spring elections and moving the local election to the Fall is worthwhile. First,
there are questions about the ballot. In cases where a municipality has referendums
before the voters in addition to the standard office elections, the ballot can get rather
long. If the ballot would be so long as to not fit on one piece of paper, Clerks would have
to program some machines to read the first ballot piece of paper and some machines to
read the second ballot piece. The City of Janesville would need to purchase additional
equipment if the ballot grew to more than one piece of paper.
There also may be concerns that the ballot would become more confusing for voters.
Typically, the area that confuses voters the most, from the perspective of the Clerk’s
Office, is the fall primary ballot where individuals can only vote for candidates within one
political party. If the City were to add any spring primary items, there would be more
than one set of rules on the same ballot which could cause greater confusion.
Another consideration is poll worker training. Currently poll workers are trained for about
one hour before each spring and fall election season. Staff feels there would be no
money or time saved on training if the state went to only fall elections. If elections were
taking place only once a year, training would be increased to four hours to ensure
everybody is refreshed on the elections in consideration of the longer amount of time
between working the polls.
Another issue to examine is voter turnout. From the perspective of the Clerk’s Office,
voters that typically vote in the less popular spring elections also vote in the fall
elections; therefore, municipalities likely won’t see an increase in voters if voting only
takes place in the fall. Janesville may see an increase in the number of people that vote
for the non-partisan races or local elections if they are moved to the fall.
Another consideration to examine is whether it would be prudent to eliminate odd year
non-partisan elections. If non-partisan elections continue to be held every year,
municipalities would still need to hold elections every year. If non-partisan elections
were moved to even years only, there would be two years in each four year cycle where
no elections would be held, thus saving significant time and money. It should also be
noted, that in presidential election years (once every four years) a February election is
necessary for the Presidential Preference ballot item, in addition to a September
primary and November general election.
With Councilmembers currently having two year terms, eliminating odd year elections
results in all Councilmembers being up for elections at the same time. Citizens would
vote for all seven positions at one time and there is the possibility for the complete
changeover of elected officials at one time. If having all Councilmembers up for election
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concurrently is undesirable, one option would be to extend the terms of
Councilmembers to four years. This results in only half of the Council being up for
election at the same time.
Legislative Update
Eliminating the spring elections requires a constitutional amendment. This means the
resolution would need to pass in two (2) consecutive legislative sessions and then it
would be put before voters in a statewide referendum.
In 2009 State Senator Holperin introduced Joint Resolution (AJR #2) to eliminate the
February primary and April election. This resolution didn’t attract support and didn’t
pass. Currently there is no legislation pending on this topic. Staff found one city that has
affirmed support of this idea. Rice Lake passed a resolution in 2009 supporting
elimination.
Summary
As state and municipal budgets have become increasingly tight, municipalities and
elected officials at the local and state level are looking for creative ways to save money
and time, while also continuing to provide important services to the public. Some
suggest eliminating the spring elections will reduce time and money; however, there are
also those that feel significant saving won’t be seen unless the spring elections are
eliminated and non-partisan elections are moved to even years only.
Follow Up
If the council approves this resolution, staff will follow up with a letter with a copy of the
resolution to Representatives Knilans and Loudenbeck and Senators Cullen and
Holperin sharing with them Janesville’s opinion on the elimination of the elections.
CC: Eric Levitt, City Manager
Jacob J. Winzenz, Assistant City Manager
Jean Wulf, Clerk-Treasurer
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Attachment 1
Registered
Voters on Ballots
Poll ListCast
YearElection
Spring Primary 38,650 1,945
2007
Spring Election 38,519 7,557
Spring Primary 38,370 16,244
Spring Election 39,234 7,757
2008
Fall Primary 39,234 1,998
Fall General 40,309 31,869
Spring Primary 42,175 1,550
2009
Spring Election 41,967 6,530
Spring Primary 34,550 1,149
Spring Election 34,511 4,343
2010
Fall Primary 34,382 7,767
Fall General 34,540 21,370
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FILE RESOLUTION NO. 2011-771
A resolution supporting the elimination of the February primary and the April
general election in favor of Consolidating Elections in the Fall.
WHEREAS, the State of Wisconsin, its counties, cities, villages and towns are facing budget
constraints; and
WHEREAS, the Wisconsin Constitution currently requires non-partisan elections to be held in the
spring and partisan elections to be held in the fall; and
WHEREAS, each election cycle requires a significant monetary cost for the citizens of the City of
Janesville; and
WHEREAS, each election requires municipal clerk offices statewide to expend significant time
with pre-election, Election Day and post-election activities; and
WHEREAS, voter turnout for spring elections is low in comparison to fall elections; and
WHEREAS, eliminating the February primary and the April general election will provide some
cost savings; and
WHEREAS, eliminating the February primary and the April general election will likely increase
voter participation for non-partisan elections; and
NOW, THEREFORE, LET BE IT RESOLVED By the Common Council of the City of
Janesville, on this 28th day of February, that the City of Janesville Common Council supports
amending the Wisconsin Constitution to eliminate the February primary and the April general
election; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED by the Common Council that we request our Wisconsin State
Legislature to examine issues of election costs, including moving non-partisan elections to even
years only, and support the implementation of cost saving measures where possible, including
the elimination of spring elections.
Motion by:
ADOPTED:
Second by:
Councilmember Aye Nay Pass Absent
APPROVED:
Brunner
McDonald
Eric Levitt, City Manager
Perrotto
Rashkin
ATTEST:
Steeber
Truman
Jean Ann Wulf, City Clerk-Treasurer
Voskuil
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
Wald Klimczyk, City Attorney
Proposed by: Councilmembers Brunner, McDonald, Rashkin
Prepared by: Management Assistant