Minneapolis boosts elected office filing fees

Minneapolis residents voted yesterday to raise the filing fee for city elected offices. The change was spurred by the large number of candidates in last year's mayoral election.

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The city's previous election filing fee was set at $20. The city will now require a $500 fee to run for mayor, $250 for the Board of Estimate and Taxation, $100 for the Park and Recreation Board. State law also allows candidates to gather signatures instead of paying the fee.

The filing fee became an issue after 35 candidates filed to run in last year's mayoral race. The city's ranked choice voting system further complicated the election tabulation. Even though only nine candidates earned more than 1 percent of the vote in the first round of tabulations, it took two days to release the final results.

Minneapolis City Council members considered a number of proposals to raise the filing fee, but none of them got the unanimous support necessary to amend the city charter. The Minneapolis Charter Commission approved the ballot question in July.

Just over 65 percent of voters approved the measure.