St. Paul requires landlords to supply new tenants with voter registration info

Landlords in St. Paul, Minn., are now required to provide new tenants with information about registering to vote or face a petty misdemeanor charge.

The St. Paul City Council voted 5-1 last week to approve the new ordinance, the Pioneer Press reported Sunday.

Landlords must supply new tenants with information about voter registration as they are signing their lease or moving into their new residency.

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If landlords don’t comply, they can be charged with a petty misdemeanor, the newspaper reported.

“This is something that is a relatively modest request,” said St. Paul City Council President Amy Brendmoen.

Brendmoen sponsored the measure as the number of renters across the Minnesota city increase.

The Pioneer Press reported that roughly 27 percent of those old enough to vote participated in the mayoral election last November — a high turnout for the city.

Critics of the measure say it places an unfair burden on landlords.

“I feel that there’s a lot of things we need landlords to do, but I don’t feel that this is one of the things we need them to do the most,” Council Member Jane Prince said.

Fellow council member Rebecca Noecker said the burden is “pretty minimal,” the newspaper reported.