Who is the proper filing officer when a Minnesota school district receives a petition for a special referendum election, and the district sits in more than one county?

Plain-English summary

In November 2006, voters in Independent School District No. 15 approved $6.5 million in bonds for a high school renovation. The district sold the bonds in April 2007 and started accepting construction bids. Then at its March 26, 2007 meeting, the school board received a petition from voters asking for a special election on two new ballot questions: should the bond proceeds be redirected to a brand-new 2,100-student high school, and should the voters approve $65 million in additional bonds for that new school. The petition was filed with the school board, asking for the questions to go on the November 2007 ballot.

The district sat in both Isanti and Anoka Counties. That created an immediate procedural problem: who was the "filing officer" who actually received the petition and verified its signatures? The Secretary of State's office told the district it was not the right filing officer because the election was not "for an office." Counsel could not find a clear answer in the statutes or in Minnesota Rules ch. 8205 (the Secretary of State's election-petition rules). So they asked the AG.

The AG split the answer. Yes, Minnesota Rules ch. 8205 applies to petitions for school district referenda in general, to the extent the individual rules have relevance to that kind of election. But the rule's specific definition of "filing officer" in Minn. R. 8205.1040, subp. 2 only applies to petitions for offices. It defines the filing officer as the county auditor (one-county office) or the Secretary of State (multi-county office). It says nothing about ballot-question petitions. So for the District No. 15 petition, that definition simply did not apply.

Where, then, was the filing officer for a ballot-question petition? The AG worked through the school-election statutes. Minn. Stat. § 205A.05, subd. 1 said the "election officials for a special election are the same as for the most recent school district general election" but did not name a filing officer. The closest the law came to a definition was Minn. Stat. § 211A.01, subd. 7, which defined "filing officer" in the campaign-finance context as "the officer authorized by law to accept affidavits of candidacy or nominating petitions for an office or the officer authorized by law to place a ballot question on the ballot." In school districts, the clerk accepts candidate affidavits and oversees placement of referendum questions on the ballot. So the clerk fit the role.

The AG's bottom line: the school district clerk is the appropriate official to perform the filing-officer functions under Minn. R. ch. 8205 for petitions submitted under Minn. Stat. § 205A.05. That answer cleared the multi-county fog for District No. 15 and gives any other multi-county Minnesota district facing a referendum petition a clear procedural path.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2007. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here. Minn. Stat. §§ 204B.071, 205A.05, and 205A.13 and Minn. R. ch. 8205 have all been revisited by the legislature and the Secretary of State since 2007; some renumbering and additional procedural detail has been added. The core conclusion (clerk as filing officer for school-district ballot-question petitions) appears to still reflect Minnesota practice but should be confirmed against the current version of the statutes and rules.

Historical context: what the AG concluded

The opinion answered two questions in sequence.

Question 1: Does Minn. R. ch. 8205 apply to petitions for school district special referendum elections? Yes, the AG said, qualifying that individual rules apply only to the extent they have relevance to that kind of election. The chain of authority is: Minn. Stat. § 205A.13 says any petition "to a school board ... which requires the board to submit an issue to referendum or election, shall meet the requirements provided in section 204B.071." Section 204B.071 in turn directs the Secretary of State to adopt rules on how election petitions "are circulated, signed, filed, and inspected." Minn. R. ch. 8205 was adopted under that authority. So a petition for a school district referendum has to meet the requirements of chapter 8205. A petition for a referendum will be subject to the general rules in chapter 8205 but not to rules that, by their terms, apply only to petitions for offices.

Question 2: Who is the proper filing officer for a multi-county school district petition? The school district clerk. The AG walked through three sub-points to reach this:

First, Minn. R. 8205.1040, subp. 2 defines "filing officer" as "the county auditor if a petition is for an office to be voted upon only in one county; or ... the secretary of state if a petition is for an office to be voted on in more than one county." The AG noted that this definition was added late in the rulemaking process, in response to the administrative law judge's report. The rulemaking record showed no intent that the definition reach school-district referendum petitions; the cross-reference in the underlying statute (Minn. Stat. § 204B.09, subd. 1 (2000)) related only to candidacy filings for county, state, and federal offices.

Second, the AG cited In re Referendum to Amend City of Grand Rapids, an unpublished 2006 court of appeals decision, for the parallel proposition that while the verification requirements of Minn. R. 8205.1050 applied to a municipal ordinance referendum, the filing-officer definition in 8205.1040, subp. 2 did not. The Grand Rapids opinion reinforced the limited reach of the rule's filing-officer definition.

Third, the AG looked for a school-context filling-in of the gap. Minn. Stat. § 205A.05 itself did not name a filing officer. But every other school-election statute that requires a filing names the clerk: § 123A.48 (consolidation petitions), § 123B.94 (candidates for common school district office), § 128D.05 (referendum on election year change in Special School District No. 1), § 203B.05 (absentee ballot applications), § 204C.36 (recount requests), § 205A.06 (candidate affidavits), § 205A.09 (longer voting hours petitions), § 209.02 (election contest notices on ballot questions). The clerk is "the only school board official expressly designated to receive election-related filings." That pattern, plus the § 211A.01 cross-statute definition of "filing officer" that fits the clerk's actual function, supports treating the clerk as the filing officer here.

Common questions

Q: I'm a school district clerk and a citizen group just dropped a stack of signature pages on my desk asking for a special-election ballot question. What do I do?
A: Under the AG's reading, you are the filing officer. That means you give the person filing the petition a receipt with the type of petition, the submitter's contact information, the filing date, and the total number of pages (per Minn. R. 8205.1040, subp. 4 as it stood in 2007). You then perform whatever verification of signatures and form is required by chapter 8205 and the relevant school-election statutes. Confirm the current version of the rules and statutes before acting; this opinion is from 2007 and chapter 8205 has been revisited since.

Q: Why isn't the Secretary of State the filing officer just because the district crosses county lines?
A: Because Minn. R. 8205.1040, subp. 2 ties the multi-county Secretary-of-State default to petitions "for an office," not to petitions for ballot questions. The rule simply does not address multi-county ballot-question petitions, and the AG declined to extend it by implication. The clerk role, by contrast, is independently grounded in the school-election statutes that name the clerk for every other election-related filing.

Q: Does the same answer apply to municipal ordinance referendum petitions?
A: Not directly. The AG opinion is about school district referendum petitions under Minn. Stat. § 205A.05. For municipal ordinance referenda, the Grand Rapids decision the AG cited reached a similar conclusion (the filing-officer definition in 8205.1040, subp. 2 doesn't apply), but the analogous role in a city is played by different officials depending on the city's form of government. Check the city charter and the relevant chapter of the statutes.

Q: Can the district clerk refuse a petition the clerk believes is legally defective?
A: The opinion does not directly address rejection authority. It notes that filing-officer functions include providing a receipt and verification, but does not give the clerk authority to substantively reject a defective petition. The remedy for a defective petition is typically a court challenge under Minn. Stat. ch. 205 or 205A, not unilateral rejection by the clerk.

Q: Was the bond-redirection question ultimately put on the November 2007 ballot?
A: The opinion only answered the procedural filing-officer question. It did not address whether the substantive ballot questions were valid under § 205A.05 (which limits the matters voters can act on) or whether they would have effectively rescinded the earlier April bond sale. Counsel for the district would have had to address those substantive questions separately.

Background and statutory framework

Minnesota school district elections are governed by Minn. Stat. ch. 205A. Section 205A.05 authorizes special elections on questions the voters are entitled to decide. The board calls a special election on its own motion or on a petition signed by 50+ voters or 5 percent of voters in the last regular school district election, whichever is fewer.

Petitions in general elections (state, county, federal) are governed by Minn. R. ch. 8205, which the Secretary of State adopted under Minn. Stat. § 204B.071. That chapter's filing-officer definition in 8205.1040, subp. 2 was added during rulemaking based on the administrative law judge's report; the legislative cross-reference (then Minn. Stat. § 204B.09, subd. 1) related only to office-filing petitions.

The AG's opinion connects the school-election framework (which presumes a clerk handles election-related filings) to the Secretary of State's petition rules (which only define a filing officer for office petitions). The connecting tissue is § 205A.13, which makes ch. 8205 applicable to school petitions, plus the general principle that statutes should be read to give effect to all provisions and to avoid leaving practical gaps.

Lori Swanson was Minnesota Attorney General in 2007. The opinion was signed by Assistant Attorney General Kenneth E. Raschke, Jr., who authored a substantial body of MN AG opinions on election and government-data questions in the late 1990s and 2000s.

Citations and references

Statutes:
- Minn. Stat. § 204B.071 (2006) (Secretary of State petition-rule authority)
- Minn. Stat. § 205A.05, subd. 1 (2006) (school district special elections)
- Minn. Stat. § 205A.13 (2006) (petitions to school boards)
- Minn. Stat. § 211A.01, subd. 7 (2006) (campaign-finance definition of filing officer)
- Various school-election statutes naming the clerk (§§ 123A.48, 123B.94, 128D.05, 203B.05, 204C.36, 205A.06, 205A.09, 209.02)

Rules:
- Minn. R. ch. 8205 (election petitions)
- Minn. R. 8205.1040 (filing-officer definition)

Cases:
- In re Referendum to Amend City of Grand Rapids, 2006 WL 1985595 (Minn. Ct. App. 2006) (unpublished) (filing-officer definition in 8205.1040 does not apply to municipal ordinance referendum petitions)

Cross-reference:
- Op. Atty. Gen. 159-a-3, March 11, 1998 (school bond petition election and § 121.148 review-and-comment requirements)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Opinions/
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Opinions/185b-20070615.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain, the linked PDF is authoritative.

SCHOOL ELECTIONS: PETITIONS: Petition Rules promulgated by the Secretary of State generally apply to petition for school district referendum. School district clerks should perform the functions of "filing officer under those rules." Minn Stat. §§ 204B.071, 205A.05, subd. 1, 205A.13 (2006); Minn. R. ch. 8205

185-b
(Cr.Ref. to 159-a-3)
June 15, 2007

Paul C. Ratwik
Julia H. Halbach
Ratwik, Roszak & Maloney, P.A.
Suite 300, 730 Second Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55402

Dear Mr. Ratwik and Ms. Halbach:

Thank you for your correspondence of April 24, 2007. In your letter you present the following facts:

FACTS AND BACKGROUND

You state that in November, 2006, the voters of Independent School District No. 15 (the "District") passed a referendum authorizing the issuance of $6,500,000.00 in bonds to renovate the District's high school. The District sold the bonds on April 3, 2007, and began to solicit bids for the reconstruction project.

You state further that at its meeting on March 26, 2007, the School Board was presented with a petition for a special election. The petition presented two questions characterized as "bond questions." The first question asks whether the proceeds from the April 3 bond sale should be "reallocated to a new fund for the construction of a new 2,100 student high school." The second question calls for the approval by the voters of the District of $65,000,000 in general obligation bonds for the purpose of constructing a new high school. The petition was "filed" with the School Board, and requests that the questions be presented to the District's voters at the November, 2007 general election.

You state that, because the District includes areas in both Isanti and Anoka Counties, the District was uncertain who should serve as the "filing officer" for the petition pursuant to Minn. R. Ch. 8205 (2005) relating to the form, circulation, filing, and inspection of election-related petitions. The District contacted the Secretary of State's Office to determine if the Secretary of State was the proper filing officer. The Secretary of State responded that because the election is not "for an office," it is not the correct filing officer. As the District's counsel you have determined that the applicable statutes, rules, and case law are unclear as to who serves as the filing officer.

Based on this determination, the District submits the questions set forth below:

QUESTION 1:

Does Minn. R. ch. 8205 apply to "any petition required for any election in this state," as the Rules state? Specifically, does this Chapter apply to special school district elections relating to referendums?

OPINION

As qualified below we answer this question in the affirmative.

Minn. Stat. § 205A.05, subd. 1 (2006) provides in part:

Special elections must be held for a school district on a question on which the voters are authorized by law to pass judgment. The school board may on its own motion call a special election to vote on any matter requiring approval of the voters of a district. Upon petition of 50 or more voters of the school district or five percent of the number of voters voting at the preceding regular school district election, the school board shall by resolution call a special election to vote on any matter requiring approval of the voters of a district. The election officials for a special election are the same as for the most recent school district general election unless changed according to law. Otherwise, special elections must be conducted and the returns made in the manner provided for the school district general election.

Minn. Stat. § 205A.13 (2006) provides:

Any petition to a school board authorized in this chapter or sections 126C.17, 126C.40, 126C.41 to 126C.48, and 124D.22, or any other law which requires the board to submit an issue to referendum or election, shall meet the requirements provided in section 204B.071.

Minn. Stat. § 204B.071 (2006) provides:

The secretary of state shall adopt rules governing the manner in which petitions required for any election in this state are circulated, signed, filed, and inspected. The secretary of state shall provide samples of petition forms for use by election officials.

Minn. R. 8205.1040 provides:

Subpart 1. Applicability. This part applies to any petition required for any election in this state, including nominating petitions, recall petitions, and proposed recall petitions.

Subp. 2. Definition of filing officer. As used in this part and part 8205.1050, "filing officer" refers to:

A. the county auditor if a petition is for an office to be voted upon only in one county; or

B. the secretary of state if a petition is for an office to be voted on in more than one county.

Subp. 3. Filing procedures. The person filing the petition must submit the entire petition at one time to the filing officer. The petitioners may submit the petition by mail, messenger, or similar delivery service. Filing of a petition is effective upon receipt by the filing officer. Petition pages must not be altered by anyone except the filing officer for verification purposes after the petition has been filed.

Subp. 4. Receipt. The filing officer must provide the person filing the petition with a receipt for the petition. The receipt must include the type of petition filed; the name, address, and telephone number of the person submitting the petition; the date on which the petition was filed; and the total number of pages in the petition submitted.

(Emphasis added.)

As originally proposed Part 8205.1040 did not include a separate definition of the term "filing officer." The present subpart 2 was added to the rule in response to the following statement in Finding 95 of the Report of the Administrative Law Judge on the Proposed Rules (copy enclosed):

It appears that the identification of the "filing officer" will vary depending upon the precise nature of the petition being filed. Although the lack of a definition of the "filing officer" does not render the proposed rules defective, the Secretary of State's Office may wish to consider incorporating a definition of this term into the proposed rules, or including a cross-reference to an existing definition. Such a modification, if made, would serve to clarify the application of the proposed rules, would be within the scope of the matter announced in the notice of hearing, and would be a logical outgrowth of the comments submitted during the rulemaking proceeding. Accordingly, it would not make the rule substantially different from the rule as originally proposed.

Id. Finding of Fact 95 at p. 20.

A footnote to that finding refers to Minn. Stat. § 204B.09, subd. 1 (2000) which related only to filing of affidavits of candidacy and nominating petitions for county, state and federal offices to be filled at the state general election and contained no reference to school district elections or to elections on ballot questions. Nevertheless, the Secretary of State, in adopting the final rules included 8205.1040, subp. 2 which basically duplicates the limited filing directions of section 204B.09, subd. 1. In the Order Adopting the Permanent Rules, the Secretary of State stated:

In accordance with Finding 95 of the Report, the Secretary has adopted the recommendation of the Administrative Law Judge by adding a new Subpart 2 to 8205.1040 reading "Subp. 2. Definition of filing officer. As used in this part and part 8205.1050 'filing officer' refers to: A. the county auditor if a petition is for an officer to be voted upon only in one county; or B. the secretary of state if a petition is for an office to be voted on in more than one county." To implement this recommendation, the Secretary added the cross-reference to part 8205.1050 since the term "filing officer" is used in that part as well. The Administrative Law Judge stated in Finding 95 that such a modification would not make the final rule substantially different from the rules as originally proposed.

25 State Register 616, 618 (2000) There is nothing in the rule-making record, however, to indicate any intent that those definitions were to apply to school district referendum petitions.

It is our opinion that the provisions of Minn. R. ch. 8205 apply to petitions for special school district referenda, to the extent that individual rules, as written, have relevance to such elections. Indeed, section 205A.13 expressly states that petitions that require a school board to call elections must meet the requirements of Minn. Stat. § 204B.071, and chapter 8205 contains rules adopted pursuant to that section.

Therefore, as so qualified, we answer your first question in the affirmative.

QUESTION 2:

Who is the proper filing officer for a school district special election petition when the school district sits in more than one county? If neither the Secretary of State nor county auditor is the proper filing officer, does the School District clerk serve as the filing officer, and what is the authority for this conclusion?

It is clear from the plain language of Minn. R. 8205.1040, subp. 2 that the definitions of "filing officer" contained therein are not relevant to a petition for any election that does not involve any public office. Thus, it is our view that Minn. R. 8205.1040 simply does not provide an independent definition of the term for purposes of such elections. Consequently, the identity of the "filing officer" for school district referenda must be determined from other sources. Cf. In re Referendum to Amend City of Grand Rapids, Minn. Munic. Election Ord. No. 04-08-11 2006 WL 1985595 (Minn. Ct. App.), wherein the court determined that, while the verification requirements of Minn. R. 8205.1050 applied to a petition for a municipal ordinance referendum, the definition of "filing officer" contained in Minn. R. 8205.1040, subp. 2 did not apply.

Unlike the language of Minn. Stat. § 205.07 addressed in the Grand Rapids case, section 205A.05 does not specify any particular official with whom a petition is to be filed. It merely requires a school board to call an election "[u]pon petition of fifty or more voters..." The section does, however, state that "the election officials for a special election are the same as for the most recent school districts general election." In that regard, the only school board official expressly designated to receive election-related filings is the clerk of the district. See, e.g., Minn. Stat. §§ 123A.48, subd. 11 (petition for referendum on school district consolidation); 123B.94, subd. 2, (candidates for office - common school dist.); 128D.05, subd. 2 (petitions for referendum on election year change in Sp. Sch. Dist. #1); 203B.05, subd. 2 (application for absentee ballots); 204C.36, subd. 1 (request for election recount); 205A.06, subd. 1 (candidate affidavits); 205A.09, subd. 2 (petition for longer voting hours); and 209.02, subd. 3 (notice of election contest on ballot question).

As noted above, the only statutory definition of the term "filing officer" we have located defines it as the officer authorized by law to accept affidavits of candidacy or nominating petitions for an office or the officer authorized by law to place a ballot question on the ballot. See note 1, supra. In a school district, it is the clerk that accepts affidavits of candidacy, and also oversees placement of referendum questions on the ballot. See, Minn. Stat. §§ 205A.06, 205A.08, subd. 4.

For the foregoing reasons it is in our opinion that the District Clerk is the appropriate official to perform the functions of the "filing officer" under Minn. R. Ch. 8205 for petitions submitted pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 205A.05.

Very truly yours,

LORI SWANSON
Attorney General

KENNETH E. RASCHKE, JR.
Assistant Attorney General

AG: #1815807