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269875 WHITE — CITV CLERK COUflCll ��98`�5 PINK — FINANCE e• CANARV — DEPARTMENT GITY OF SAINT PAUL BLUE — MAVOR File NO. ouncil Resolution Presented By Referred To Committee: Date Out of Committee By Date WHEREAS, A petition requesting a referendum on Council File No. 269169 - Ordinance No. 16319, entitled "An Ordinance amending Section 308.23 of the St. Paul Legislative Code pertaining to regu- lations prohibiting certain sexual conduct in premises licensed to sell intoxicating liquor" has been filed with the City Clerk, a copy of which petition is attached hereto; and WHEREAS, A petition for a referendum requires signatures of ` registered voters equal in number to eight percent of thos�,rwho voted for the office of Mayor in the last election; and 70, 305 votes ` were cast for the office of Mayor in the last ele�tion, eight per- ' cent of which number is 5,624 votes; and WHEREAS, The office of the City Clerk Bureau of Elections, has checked the 6,657 signatures on the petition against the signatures on registration cards in the Bureau of Elections and rejected #�y-6��g►- signatures for the reasons given in the attached report; and � _.__ ....:,� .:,�„��c,,.�,�'-;. -_�. . .,. WHEREAS, The Bureau of Elections has found that only �-.-��, "� signatures were those of persons who were residents of 5aint Paul and registered to vote at the address given on the petition; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the Council of the City of Saint Paul, having ;#: reviewed the report of the office of the City Clerk, hereby deter� mines that the foregoing petition is insufficient under Chapt�r; 8 _°-r . �.;:, - of the City Charter and directs the City Clerk to return a �copy of the petition to the person or persons from whom it was received, together with a written statement of its defects. COUNCILI�EN Yeas Nays Requested by Department of: Butier � ,� In Favor Hunt Levine � __ Against BY Roedler Sylvester ` Tedesco �� s �9� Form Approved by City Attorney Adopted ouncil: Date Ce ied Pas� d Co cil Secret�ry By- �'� �(�p �C+T � `9� Approved by Mayor for Submission to Council Approved by A4ayor. Da — By BY PUBLISHED �CT 1 5 �9�7 �, � CITY OF SAINT PAUL � �� 7� CiTY 0.+� �4� �9i t Rose Mi: o =-z; -� AIMff B. Ol�oe City Clerk and �d ��_°�°` a Council Recorder Council Secretary �� ,�c +.� OFFICE OP THE CITY CLBRK BUREAU OP RECORDS �8B City Hall St.Paul,Minnesota 6510.� Phone�98-I,�JI 30 �_�:,�- � �? Date. Received of City Clerk's Office a copy of petition for referandwm filed against Council File No. 269169 - Ordinance No. 16319 entitled, "An Ordinance amending Section 308.23 of the St. Paul Legislative Code pertaining to regulation prohibiting certain sexual condnat in premisis licen�ed to s�ll intoxica.ting liquor". I agree that receipt of a eapy of the petition at this time satisfies the requirement of the Chaxter that directs the City Clerk to deli`ver a capy of the petition to the petitioners a�`ter it is declared sufficient or insuf`Picient by the City Council. 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OPfICE OP THE CITY CLlRK CITY OF SAINT PAUL EUREAU OF ELECTIONS 33 City Hall St.Paul,Minnesota SS102 To the Members of the City Council A petition for a referendum on Council File No. 269169 - Ordinance No. 16319 entitled "An Ordinance amendin� Section 308.23 of the St. Paul Legislative Code pertaining to regulations prohibiting certain sexual conduct in premises licensed to sell intoxicating liquor" has been checked by this office. The petition consisted of 296 pages wit.h 6,657 names. Of these, the following were rejected for the reason given; 55 names rejected - duplicate signature 33 �� " - signature appears si�ned by someone else 155 " " - no address given 20 " " - si�nature of woman using husband� s first name 2687 " " - not registered at address given 1527 " " - outside city or printed signature 208 " " - identification of signa.ture with initials not sure �+ " " - petitioner witnessed own signature �bS� total re�ected We found that 1,968 na.mes were valid registered voters . 70,305 votes were cast for Mayor at the last City Election with 8� totaling 5,624. V�ry truly yours, /'�- Rose Mix City Clerk �e ��,�� _. � THOMSON, NORDBY & PETERSON LAWYERS JACK 5. NORDBY . MINNEAPOLIS OFFICE (6�2) 339-8646 � SUITE 1530 � FIFTY-FIVE EAST FIFTM STREET SAINT PAUL, MiNNESOTA 55101 (6i2) 227-0856 October Fourth 1 9 7 7 TO: MEMBERS OF THE ST. PAUL CITY COUNCIL: On behalf of the petitioners in support of a referendum on Section 308. 23 of the Legislative Code, I respectfully request the Council to take the following action: I. Disapprove the City Clerk' s determination as to certain signatures for the following reasons, on the grounds that there is no authority for disallowing signatures for those reasons: A. Signatures which appear to be signed by someone else. B. Signatures of women using husband' s first name. C. Printed signatures. D. Signatures using initials. IS. As to signatures by persons "not registered at address given" , to direct the City Clerk to check these signatures in the alphabetical voter files to determine if the persons signing are registered at some other address and of those who are to approve the signatures. III. To direct the City Clerk to take action as above outlined both as to signatures on the petitions already filed and as to signatures upon any petitions which may be £iled hereafter in this matter. Names of any persons appearing on the petitions at whatever address should be approved if those persons appear in any file of the Bureau of Elections as registered voters. IV. To place the amendr.lent to Ordinance 308.23 upon the ballot in the next election at the Council's own option. Respect.ful y submittedr �� _�- _. .7ack S. Nordby JSN/znik ��Tr ��, , ��`v s� e � ` � � _,- ' _ O a�lY)i9i]ii�� - . G �la��ai �� CITY OF SAINT PAUL y�, �� b.> OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY October 6, 1977 HARRIET LANSING Saint Pau1 City Council City Hall Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102 Re: Referendum on Section 308.23 of the Legislative Code rlembers of the Council: This letter is in response to Mr. Jack Nordby' s letter of October 4, and based upon a meeting between Mr. Nordby and our office. Mr. Nordby urges that the Council disapprove the following five bases which the Office of the City Clerk used to reject signatures on the petition: A. Signatures which appear to be signed by someone else; B. Signatures of women using their husband' s first name or initials; C. Printed signatures; D. Signatures using initials where identity of voter cannot be reasonably ascertained; and E, Signatures of persons who are not registered at the address given. The rationale for these categories shall be discussed in the order given above. A. Signatures appear to be signed by someone e1se. There were thirty-three (3) signatures rejected for this reason. Where there was any doubt about a signature, it was resolved City Hall, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55102 . 612 ?_98-5121 ' Members of the Council Page Two October 6, 1977 in favor of the validity of the signature. We are confident that the Election Bureau exercised good judgment in rejecting names for this reason. If Council members have any concern about this category, the Election Bureau has available for inspection today a xerox copy of the voter registration cards of the per- sons who did not appear �to sign the petition themselves. With- ou.t this basis for rejection, people could go through the phone book and write others' names and addresses. B. Women using husband' s first name or initials. Signatures of women using their husband' s name, as in "Mrs. John Jones" have historically been rejected from petitions upon the advice of this office on the basis that they were not sign- ing their le al name. However, we recognize that the Charter � does not necessarily require "legal" names and that many women are known socially by their husbands' names. Moreover, in order to be consistent with the acceptance of signatures where ini- tials are used if the identity can be ascertained, we have de- termined that these signatures should be accepted if it can be ascertained that the women are registered voters. At our di- rection, the Election Bureau has rechecked the 20 signatures in this category. Four of the addresses were found to be outside the city, and three of the names were not at the address given. However, thirteen names appeared to correspond with registered voters, and this number should be added to the total of valid signatures. C. Printed signatures. There were approximately one dozen of these signatures. In all cases the Election Bureau did pull the voter registration card and compare signatures. If the signatures appeared similar, the signature was considered valid even though printing was used. This is only reasonable since, to ensure against fraud there must be a means of ascertaining the identity of the person signing the pztition. The only practical means is comparison with voter , registration cards. . s� Members of the Council Page Three October 6, 1977 D. Signatures using initials. �- Two hundred and eight signatures were rejected where initials were used. However, in all cases where identity of th� individua]. could be ascertained, the signature was considered valid. Thus, if the initial was the first letter of the name of the registered voter and the last name and address matched up and the writing appeared similar, these names �were counted valid. A large num- ber of signatures in this group were rejected because na one by that name was registered at that address. Thus, it was not the use of the initials which caused the rejection of the signatures. E. Not registered at address given. The City Clerk and Election Bureau, upon the advice of this � office, have rejected signatures on petitions where, upon a check of the ward-precinct file, no person by the name sought is reg- istered at the address given. We continue to find that this is a valid position. It is possible that some of the 2,687 persons whose signatures were rejected in this category may have been previously registered at another address within the city. Thus, their names might be in the alphabetical file in the Election Bureau and their signatures on file at other addresses. However, - it is our position that these persons are no longer "registered. ' voters. " The Charter requires signatures of registered voters. Pursuant to Minn. Stat. � 201.061, one may only register to vote in the precinct in which one lives. Moreover, pursuant to Minn. Stat. S 201.071, upon receipt of a new registration indicating a change of address, the cld registration card is cancelled. In addition to the technical legal argument, policy considerations militate in favor of rejecting these signatures. Some of the reasons for requiring signatures of registered voters are ease of identification of the person signing and prevention of fraud. Only if both the signature and address match up can it be ascer- tained whether or not the person whose name appears on the peti- tion actually signed it and whether that person lives within the City of Saint Paul. Even if the Election Bureau were to go to the alphabetical file, they probably could not ascertain iden- tity without the same address. Moreover, in many cases, the . ' Members of the Council Page Four October 6, 1977 signatures on the petition are so difficult to read that it could not be determined what name to look up in the alphabetical file. Conclusion. Due to the legal and policy considerations stated above, we rec- ommend that the Council accept the report of the City Clerk with the amendment of twenty signatures as indicated above and make a finding that the petition is insufficient. Revising the figures in the original report of the City Clerk with the figures _ ______ discussed in (B) above results in the following: 55 names rejected - duplicate signature 33 names rejected - signature appears signed by someone else� � 155 names rejected - no address 2,690 names rejected - not registered at address 1, 531 names rejected - outside city or printed signature. 208 names rejected - identification of signature with ini- tials not sure 4 names rejected - petitioner witnessed own signature 4,676 Total Rejected. The above computation results in 1, 981 valid signatures, which is 3,643 short of the number required for a valid petition. � Res ectfully submitted, , 'HARRIET LANSING City Attorney ^*.,�.. �-*- `� \Q''t-C�`\ � � � BERYL A. NORD Assistant City Attorney HL:BAN:er cc:Jack S. Nordby, Attorney at Law Rose Mix, City Clerk Walter Bell, Election Bureau