Annual District Voting Information

  • 2020 District Clerk/Voting Information

    The Governor recently issued an executive order that has rescheduled school district elections for June 9, 2020. It also included clarification for district regarding the following:

    1)     Nominating Petitions:  The requirement of signatures on nominating petitions has been waived.  All age and residency requirements remain applicable.  Nominating petitions must be submitted to the District Clerk, Pearl Horn, no later than the date the ballot must be finalized by May 12.

    2)     Ballots:  The ballot must be finalized no later than May 12, and candidates must be listed in alphabetical order.

    3)     Notice of Annual Meeting:  Districts must publish legal notice of the annual meeting twice (not four times as would typically be the case), with the first installment occurring no later than 28 days before the election, or May 12, and the second installment occurring between May 13-June 8.  This means the legal notice will need to be approved by the Board no later than the May 12th date.  Note that due to many of the changes detailed below, the template legal notice will need to be modified.

    4)     Military Ballots:  Military ballots must be transmitted to military voters no later than three days after the ballot is finalized, or May 15.

    5)     Absentee Ballots:  The annual meeting must take place “remotely” and voters will be voting exclusively via absentee ballot.  Following the finalization of the ballot, the District must send out a post-card notice to each qualified voter in the District that details the date of the election, the date of the budget hearing, definition of a qualified voter, as well as an absentee ballot and a postage-paid return envelope.  The District must also send military ballots to qualified military voters.

    6)     Board’s Approval of the Budget:  The District still must make its budget available at least seven days prior to the adjourned budget hearing and thus, must approve no later than that date.  See below for budget hearing information.

    7)     Report Cards:  Report cards are due to the State on May 22 and the State will publish the compilation no later than June 2.

    8)     Adjourned Budget Hearing:  The budget hearing must still take place between 7 and 14 days prior to the annual meeting, which means the budget hearing must take placed between May 26 and June 2.  Pursuant to Executive Order 202.15, in-person hearings may not be conducted through June 1st.  You may conduct a budget hearing telephonically or by other remote means (Zoom, WebX, etc.)  prior to June 1.  We cannot be sure that the Governor will not extend the prohibition against live public hearings beyond June 1st.  So, if you have means to conduct a remote hearing, you may want to consider this option.

    9)     Budget Notice:  The budget mailer must be sent no earlier than the date of the budget hearing and no later than June 3.

    10)  Date of Annual Meeting:  The Annual Meeting and Election must be held on June 9.  The Governor has dictated that the election must take place “remotely,” but this statement provides little clarity regarding the actual conduct of the election and the canvassing of the votes.  We will be providing additional guidance in the coming days regarding how the election will be conducted and how votes should be canvassed.