Committee wants more time to study changes to primary elections

After a city councilor proposed nixing Keene’s primary elections due to high cost, low voter turnout and a minimal number candidates eliminated from the general election ballot, officials are taking a closer look at whether this would be the right move for the city.

In a Sept. 13 letter to the city council and Mayor George Hansel, Councilor Randy Filiault suggested either eliminating Keene’s municipal primary election or raising the number of candidates needed to trigger one. On Thursday, the city council’s Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee voted unanimously to place the request on more time — a move that allows the committee to continue the discussion at a later date after more information has been collected.

In order to eliminate or change the primary process, an amendment to the city charter would need to be approved by voters during a regular municipal election. With the 2021 election just a few weeks away, any initiative to change the primary would not be able to be placed on the ballot until 2023.

“My personal opinion is that it is definitely time for the primary to go,” Filiault told the committee on Thursday. “To spend that amount of money, and have that little of a turnout, for the purpose of eliminating just one or two participants that could easily carry on to the general election, I don’t think makes any sense anymore.”

Holding a primary costs the city nearly $13,000, City Clerk Patty Little says.

“The costs for conducting a primary would need to cover ballot coding, ballot printing, polling rental charge, election worker stipends, publication of notices, meals, supplies, postage,” Little told The Sentinel last month.

Keene voters passed a charter amendment during the 2011 election that established a minimum number of candidates needed for a primary election. In the mayoral and ward councilor races, more than two candidates are required for a primary to be held. For councilor at-large elections, a primary is needed if there are more than 10.

Since then, primary races have been triggered by just one candidate every city election year, Little explained last month after Filiault submitted his request. There were 11 councilor at-large candidates in the 2013, 2015 and 2017 races, and 2017 also saw three candidates in the mayoral race and the Ward 1 and Ward 3 council races, according to Little. In 2019, there were three candidates for mayor and three candidates for Ward 4 councilor.

The 2021 primary was no different when it came to the mayoral race, with only one of the three candidates being eliminated.

If the city decides to move forward with plans to eliminate the primary, there are a number of things to consider, City Attorney Tom Mullins said Thursday. He agreed with Filiault’s argument that there aren’t often many candidates eliminated during primary elections but said there are some concerns to think about as well.

Mullins said if there’s no other mechanism in place to eliminate candidates ahead of the general election, there’s a possibility that the person who is elected can win without a majority of the vote. He noted that this could be addressed by a runoff election, which is held after a general election when the winning candidate does not meet the threshold required to secure the seat they’re running for.

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“The problem that you would run into at that point is the timing ...,” Mullins said. “Because you have to have enough time after the election to allow the runoff to occur and then to certify those votes in order to go forward with the Jan. 1 swearing-in date for everybody.” He added that the potential need for a recount could further complicate the timeline.

Committee members also had questions about how to move forward with reimagining the primary process. Councilor Mike Remy asked about how eliminating the primary would impact those who are running write-in campaigns.

Little noted that the general election ballot also includes space to write in a candidate and that those individuals would still have a shot at winning if they reach the number of votes required to beat the other candidates.

Councilor Bettina Chadbourne noted that years ago, the city proposed an unrelated change to the charter that ultimately failed. She said that after the fact, when she was asking around about it, Chadbourne learned that many people voted no because they didn’t fully comprehend what was being asked of them.

“The more complicated we make it, any idea of changing the existing rules or charter, the more difficult it will be on the ballot,” she said. “It just seems like there’s a history there, and I would be concerned. I don’t know if we can do more educating the public prior to putting it on the ballot.”

Meanwhile, Councilor Bryan Lake, who is not a member of the finance committee, suggested eliminating limits on how many candidates a person can vote for in a given race. He described a scenario in which residents could vote for all candidates that they approve of, rather than only vote for the number of candidates that corresponds with how many seats are available.

“It would empower voters to better voice their opinion on a list of candidates,” he said. “It would help ensure that, in these races with more than three candidates, that we actually get towards a majority vote for one of the candidates. And ... it wouldn’t be a big change to what our ballots look like. It’s the same voting process but removing that restriction of you can only vote for one candidate at a time.”

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Mia Summerson can be reached at 603-352-1234, ext. 1435, or msummerson@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @MiaSummerson.

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