City Council - Regular Meeting

Please rise as you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Welcome, everybody, to our August 14th, 2026 City of Rochester Canvassing Board meeting. Clerk Reyna, please call the roll.

Good afternoon. Council Member Keene?

Here.

Council Member Miller?

Here.

Council Member Wall?

Here.

Council Member Fredericks?

Here.

Council Member Palmer is absent. Council Member Doering? Here. Council President Schubert?

Here.

Mayor Norton? Present.

YOU SEE THE ORDER OF THE AGENDA. IS THERE A MOTION TO APPROVE THE AGENDA? SO MOVED. SECOND. MOVED BY COUNCILMEMBER WOE. SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER MILLER. ALL IN FAVOR SAY AYE. AYE. OPPOSED SAY NAY. MOTION PASSES. WE HAVE REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. ONE ITEM ON TODAY'S AGENDA WHICH IS THE CANVAS OF THE AUGUST 11, 2026 PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTS. City Clerk Anne Casel, please take it away.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council President, and Council Members. Today we convene as the canvassing board, as required by state statute, to officially certify the results of the August 11th, 2026 election. The county canvassing board met this morning and officially certified their results, and then our abstract from the canvassing board, which we'll sign at the end of the meeting tonight, will go to the state, and the results will be official. We have all of the summary statements and precinct reports in the folder if you would like to review them. Otherwise, they're all compiled in the abstract, which was in the packet. Deputy Clerk Christine Cartwright will review our results from the meeting.

Thank you, Anne. So we, thanks. We have 80 precincts, which are split across six wards. The 39 polling locations that were used for this election, which you guys approved back at the end of last year, we recruited 586 election judges. At the start of the day, there were 79,712 registered voters at 7 a.m. Over the course of the day, we registered 725 people for same-day registration. That is a noticeable increase compared to 2024, where we were south of 200 people on Election Day. Over the course of the day, there were 24,876 votes cast, of which 6,046 were absentee. I want to take a moment here just to put that into a little bit of state context. So the state of Minnesota's primary election had about a 25% turnout. Olmstead County had about 29%. The thing that drove up Olmsted County's number was Rochester's, which had a 31% turnout. So we are above average for the state of Minnesota, which obviously historically is one of the top turnout states in the nation. So it's something to be proud of. Back to you, I believe, Anne.

So, looking at our contest then for November, we'll have Jess Garcia and Joe Powers have moved forward for the mayor positions. There was not a primary in one or three. And in Ward 5, Rushi Gupta and Sean Palmer will be on the ballot. So, we just want to thank the City of Rochester voters for their turnout. We especially want to thank our wonderful team of election judges that work at the polls. We tell them all the time we could not put on the election without them, and we really appreciate their service to their community. Our partnership with Olmstead County and their elections office, we want to thank them for all of their hard work. Our parks maintenance teammates and the public works teammates really help us out with putting the signs out, getting the golf carts lots of logistics the day before, so we appreciate them. And then also our partnership with Rochester Public Schools and all of our churches that have our polling locations. We appreciate them working with our judges and providing a space. So, we would just request that you adopt a resolution adopting the results. If you had any questions on any of them, like I said, we have all of the individual precincts tabulations with us today.

THANK YOU, CLERK CASE. ANY QUESTIONS? IS THERE A MOTION?

I'D LIKE TO MAKE A MOTION ADOPTING A RESOLUTION DECLARING THE RESULTS OF THE AUGUST 11, 2026 PRIMARY ELECTION AND EXECUTION OF THE ELECTION ABSTRACTS.

SECOND. MOTION MADE BY COUNCILMEMBER MILLER, SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER DORING. ANY DISCUSSION? COUNCILMEMBER KEANE.

I KNOW THERE WAS A MEETING EARLIER THIS MORNING WHERE MAYOR NORTON WENT THROUGH THE CANVASSING. DO YOU HAVE ANY MINOR REPORT FOR US?

Well, at the Yelmstead County level, we didn't have any of the city results, so those were not checked, but we did go through a process where all of us in the room take a folder, we go through it, we double-check the numbers to make sure that the numbers on all the tapes and the sheets add up to what is on the form that you will be signing. So that is part of that process. Apparently it isn't part of this process, but they do check on all the county commission races and state races.

Thank you. And then just on the voter registration that the number of people walk in there, there's an implication there that people obviously are moving in and out all the time. What cleans up those people as they move out of Rochester? What gets them off of our voter registration?

They could register somewhere else in the state and their registration would be transferred. Also in the voter registrations, those may not have all been new voters. You could have moved within your same precinct or moved across town and registered also. So that is included in that figure. Okay. New or updated registrations.

Yeah. And then just last question, I know there's 39 different polling places, 80 precincts. Did we have any anomalies or any problems with either challenges or anomalies that happened at our polling places?

Not that I'm aware of. We did have one party observer at a polling location, which is prescribed by statute, and they were very interested in the process, and the judges had no issues with any of it. So we're not aware of any issues with any of the polling places.

Thank you. ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION? COUNCILMEMBER MILLER.

I JUST ADD TO THIS LIST OF THANKS ALSO TO STATE PARTNERS AND THE STATE LEGISLATURE FOR MAKING VOTING VERY ACCESSIBLE TO THE VOTERS OF MINNESOTA AND I THINK THAT SHOWS IN OUR ELECTION RESULTS AND I'M VERY PROUD THAT WE ARE ABLE TO EXCEED THE STATE AVERAGE OF A VERY HIGH TURNOUT STATE.

ALL IN FAVOR SAY AYE. AYE. ALL SAY NAY. MOTION PASSES UNANIMOUSLY. IS THERE A MOTION TO ADJOURN? Second. Motion made by Council Member Frederick, seconded by Council Member Wall. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed say nay. We are adjourned. And we need to sign this?

Why don't we check this?