AUBURN – Voters will decide whether they support a new city rule book or not at the polls Tuesday.

A vote on a new City Charter is the only local issue on Tuesday’s ballot in Auburn. If voters agree, it will be the first time Auburn has changed its charter since 1994.

Voters elected a group of six to review the City Charter in November 2004. That group joined three others appointed by the City Council and began reviewing the city’s founding document in January.

They finished their work in September. A draft of a new charter is available on the city’s Web site at www.auburnmaine.org/html/Charter_Commission.htm.

Commissioners have restructured the entire document. They’ve gotten rid of most legal jargon, modernized the language and summarized the entire document in a simple preamble. Among other provisions, the proposed charter would:

• Require a public vote before the city can borrow more than 9 percent of the budget for new buildings and land purchases, about $5.5 million this year.

• Move the city’s general election from even-numbered to odd-numbered years. The 2006 election would be a special election, with councilors, the mayor and School Committee members’ terms lasting only one year.

• Require city councilors to work with the School Committee on financial audits, capital projects budgeting and adopting a purchasing policy.

The city clerk’s office in Auburn Hall will be open from 9 a.m. to noon today for absentee voting and new voter registration. The polls in each of Auburn’s five wards will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.