Honoring Ginny Gelms

I was proud to present a resolution honoring Interim Elections Director Ginny Gelms at the last Council meeting. The text is below. I want to just add that it has been a pleasure working with Ginny, and I wish her all the best.

Resolution of the City of Minneapolis

By Gordon, Reich, Hofstede, Johnson, Samuels, Lilligren, Goodman, Glidden, Schiff, Tuthill, Quincy, Colvin Roy and Hodges

Honoring Ginny Gelms, Interim Assistant Clerk and Director of Elections, for her service to the people of Minneapolis

Whereas, Ginny Gelms started with the City of Minneapolis in March of 2008 as an Elections Technician and became Interim Elections Director in March of 2010; and,

Whereas, as Interim Elections Director, Ginny managed a 1.2 million dollar budget, the City Hall Elections Office and the elections warehouse and training facility, a permanent staff of four, a seasonal administrative staff of twenty, and over two thousand election judges serving 233,079 Minneapolis registered voters; and,

Whereas, Ginny has embraced ever expanding responsibilities, moving from a position as Elections Technician serving 92,000 registered voters with 56 precincts in Johnson County, Iowa, to serving more than twice as many registered voters with 131 precincts in Minneapolis, to serving more than 700,000 in Hennepin County in the space of three years; and,

Whereas, Ginny helped the Elections Department respond to many challenges foreseen and unforeseen, including implementation of Ranked Choice Voting, recounts for the 2008 Appellate Court primary, 2008 United States Senate, and 2010 Minnesota Governors races, and the Great Elections Warehouse Flood of August 10, 2010; and,

Whereas, Ginny Gelms made Ranked Choice Voting implementation successful by engineering the processes used in the 2009 election, including writing algorithms, technical design, running the test election, writing the Ranked Choice ordinance and fine tuning the hand count procedures; and,

Whereas, during Ginny’s tenure the Minneapolis Elections Department received the 2010 Guardian Award, a national award from the Election Center, for its highly successful implementation of Ranked Choice Voting; and,

Whereas, due to her extensive experience with Ranked Choice Voting, Ginny is now considered a national expert on Ranked Choice elections; and,

Whereas, Ginny is a proud resident of South Minneapolis with her husband Chris and cat Quist, where she volunteers for the Corcoran Neighborhood Organization as a board member and the editor of the Corcoran News; and,

Whereas, Ginny is an active reader who is seldom without her Nook e-reader, and volunteers for the Hennepin County library system; and,

Whereas, Ginny is leaving the City of Minneapolis to serve as Deputy Elections Manager at Hennepin County, where the City of Minneapolis is confident that she will continue to lead the effort to find Ranked Choice-capable voting machines; and,

Whereas, Ginny served the Elections Department and people of Minneapolis during an intensely demanding period, with professionalism, grace, and a lot of heart;


Now, Therefore, Be it Resolved by the City Council of the City of Minneapolis:

That the City of Minneapolis thanks and honors Ginny for her many contributions to the people of Minneapolis, and wishes her well in her new job as Deputy Elections Manager for Hennepin County.