Election Day change? Topic at the center of debate during Palmer City Council meeting

PALMER — City of Palmer clerk Norma Alley often has the shortest report of any of the staff for the council. However during her report on Tuesday, the council feared they may be running out of time.

Alley notified the council during the clerk’s report that if the council wanted to propose an election date change for the city of Palmer, it would have to be ratified by a vote of the council within the month.

Immediate questions were raised, if it was possible for the council to take immediate action and what the cost would be. A possible change to the city’s election date would coincide with the pending change of the Mat-Su Borough’s election. Borough Proposition 3 passed during the municipal elections earlier this month. Now, starting in 2020, the borough and state elections will unify. This change would not require a vote of the constituents to change the date.

“Wouldn’t it be more confusing if we were to keep our election in October and the borough would go to November?” Mayor Edna DeVries asked.

Not all members of the council were keen on changing the date of the election. Councilwoman Linda Combs voiced her concern over changing the date as a council without putting it before the voters, citing how the borough changed its election date.

“Can we also direct the clerk to look into the feasibility of mail in voting as well, as a second option, rather than changing the dates?” Councilwoman Sabrena Combs said.

The borough will certify its election results Oct. 16 and an ordinance to change the date would have to appear on the Oct. 23 agenda for public hearing. If the change was to happen, it would have to occur a full year before the next year’s election cycle. The council would have only one meeting to pass the legislation.

“If the city clerk could give us just the financials, would we save money if we piggybacked on the borough and state election, or would we lose money,” Councilman David Fuller said. “Is it more efficient to do it this way or not? If it is, I would be all for it.”

Council members also raised questions about if they would have to buy their own election equipment.

“I’m nervous about that timeline. Just this preliminary discussion indicates to me that there’s a lot of big questions that need to be answered,” Deputy Mayor Pete LaFrance said.

The council has meetings scheduled for budget hearings every Tuesday for the next three months. Questions about what the budget implications would be would need to be sorted out prior to working through the budget.

With the revelation that the borough’s election change isn’t until 2020, the council was put at ease over whether or not to take immediate action.

“We don’t have as huge of a rush as we think we do,” Sabrena Combs said.