Note: Michigan charter amendments show existing language that is being removed as struck through and new language that is being added as highlighted.

Proposed Ballot Question

It is proposed City Charter Sections 13.4, 13.8, and 13.11 be amended to provide for election of non-partisan candidates for those offices by filing of nominating petitions and removal of reference to a candidate's party designation on the ballot. Shall this proposed amendment to the Ann Arbor City Charter be adopted?

Proposed City Charter Amendment

Nonpartisan Elections
SECTION 13.4.

There shall not be a primary election for city elective offices.

SECTION 13.4.

(a) A City primary election for the purpose of nominating such officers of the City as this Charter provides shall be held on August 8, 2017, and in succeeding years on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in August  as provided for in Section 12.4. If, upon expiration of the time for filing nomination petitions for any elective  office, it appears that petitions have been filed for no more than one candidate for the office from each  political party nominating candidates therefor, no primary election shall be held with respect to the office. The  nominees for election to the respective offices for which they are candidates shall be selected pursuant to  Section 13.5. As to any office with respect to which no primary is necessary, persons named in petitions as  candidates for election to the office shall be certified by the Clerk to the Election Commission to be placed  upon the ballot for the next subsequent regular election under the party heading set forth in the nomination  petitions for the candidates. (Amended by elections of November 3, 1992, November 8, 2016 and November  2, 2021.) (b) No person who is a sticker candidate for nomination, or whose name is written in on the ballots  at any primary election, shall be declared nominated unless that person receives at least fifty votes.

Nomination Petitions
Section 13.8.

(a) A person desiring to qualify as a candidate for an elective City office shall file with the Clerk a nonpartisan nomination petition consisting of one or more official petition forms. Each petition filed by or on behalf of a person seeking nomination to the offices of Mayor shall be signed by not less than 250 nor more than 350 registered electors including at least 50 signatures of residents of each ward. Each petition filed by or on behalf of a person seeking nomination to the office of Council Member shall be signed by not less than 100 nor more than 200 registered electors of the ward from which the person seeks to be elected. (Amended by election of April 4, 1988.)

(b) Official petition forms, substantially similar to those required by law for state and county officers, shall be prepared and furnished by the Clerk. Before the Clerk furnishes petition forms to any person, the Clerk shall enter thereon, in ink or by typewriter, the name of the person in whose behalf the petition is to be circulated and the name of the office for which the person is a candidate. No petition form which has been altered with respect to such entries shall be received by the Clerk for filing. Nonpartisan nomination petitions for the purpose of filling a vacancy shall so state. Petitions shall be filed with the Clerk not later than 5:00 p.m., on the seventh Monday prior to the date of the regular City primary election. The Clerk shall publish notice of the last day, time, and place for filing nomination petitions at least one week but not more than three weeks before that date.

(c) Upon the filing thereof, nomination petitions shall be public records and open to public inspection, but only in the presence and upon the authority of the Clerk or an authorized employee of the Clerk's Office.

Form of Ballots
Section 13.11.

The names of all persons nominated for election to each office shall be placed upon the ballot. The form of the ballot used in any City primary or election and the printing and numbering thereof shall conform, as nearly as may be, with the requirements of the general election laws of the State. No  party vignette or emblem or other designation shall appear on the ballot.