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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, March 09, 2009 Page 7 last review; and supplemental information of his accomplishments since the pre- vious review, asking that that information be included as part of the review con- text. 10. a Ramsey County Elections Coordinator Joe Mansky Mr. Mansky apologized for his delay due to his ongoing court appearances with the MN Senate election review. Mr. Mansky noted that, in the last General Election, 17% of Roseville's registered voters had been through the Absentee Ballot process, and that Roseville had the highest record for absentee voting in Ramsey Council, and that it continued in- crease rapidly annually. Mr. Mansky anticipated that this was a future trend with voters looking for alternative and more convenient methods of voting. Mail Elections Mr. Mansky reviewed the current experience in the State of MN with mail voting over the last twenty (20 years, with MN being on of the first states to initiate all mail voting in 1987 for several rural areas not having access to conventional poll- ing places. Mr. Mansky noted the extremely high voter turnout in such situations, including off-year or smaller elections; and some special elections or specific ref- erendumsheld entirely by mail to get a higher voter turnout. Mr. Mansky echoed Ms. Curti's comments regarding cost-savings; better training of election judges due to savings in resources and staff time; and encouraged Roseville to consider serving as a pilot community to provide actual logistic data for consideration of a state-wide program. Early Voting Mr. Mansky provided a summary of the .proposal for early voting at a central lo- cation before election day, with a proposal currently going before a legislative committee tomorrow. Mr. Mansky noted that voters would actually go through the voting process similar to election day, and would insert their ballots into the ballot counter, at which time, it could be determined if their ballot was completed accurately, and if not, the situation could be resolved at that time to ensure that their ballot was counted. Mr. Mansky noted that this option would provide cost savings, including less staff-intensive labor for accepting/rejecting absentee bal- lots; and would allow voters to be treated the same as if they were voting on elec- tion day. Mr. Mansky, based on his experience and observations in this senate election re- count over the last four (4) months, noted his awareness of mistakes made by vot- ers and election judges in the process; and the inability of the voter to correct their ballot errors if voting by absentee ballot, and their not being counted until election night.