LEWISTON — A revamped City Charter should set a minimum requirement for write-in candidates to win a seat, according to a City Council vote Tuesday night.

Councilors voted 4-3 to require write-in candidates for any city seat to get at least as many votes as the number of signatures traditional candidates must get to qualify for the ballot.

Candidates for the mayor’s chair must get at least 100 signatures to get on the ballot. Candidates for City Council and School Committee need 50 signatures.

The charter currently includes no standard for write-in candidates. If there is no candidate on the ballot for a given seat, a write-in candidate could win with one vote.

“There truly are some individuals that you would not want, people that might be very concerning, to win a seat just by default,” Councilor Mark Cayer said.

Councilors Nate Libby, Richard Desjardins and Doreen Christ agreed.

But Councilors John Butler, Donald D’Auteuil and Craig Saddlemire voted against the proposed change.

“I don’t see it as our authority to say who can and who can’t run,” D’Auteuil said. “If nobody wants to run in a ward, the voters are going to get whoever shows up. And if nobody runs and they get someone who shouldn’t be there, hopefully 10 people will run in the next election. But it shouldn’t be up to us.”

Councilors are scheduling an Aug. 14 public hearing on that change and other proposed changes to the City Charter. Voters would get their say on the proposed changes at the polls in November.

Most of the changes represent tweaks and steps to modernize the document, eliminating some confusing language and some gender-specific language.

The current charter was adopted in 1980. Councilors created a committee in August 2011 to review the charter with an eye toward changes. That committee presented a report to the previous council in November.

One of the proposed changes would let the mayor vote when a council seat is vacant, when a councilor is absent from a meeting or when a councilor has recused herself or himself from voting because of a conflict of interest.

Other proposed charter changes are:

* Eliminating the prohibition on appointed officers or employees to be candidates for city offices;

* Expanding term limits for the Planning Board and Board of Appeals to two consecutive five-year terms;

* Requiring official write-in candidates to register with the City Clerk at least 30 days before an election;

* Allowing the City Council to appoint a councilor if one is not elected at a regular election;

* Allowing the City Council to appoint School Committee members in case of vacancies;

* Adding a provision that would make elected or appointed officials forfeit their seats if they missed three consecutive meetings. That would apply to the mayor, city councilors, School Committee members, Planning Board members and members of the Board of Appeals.

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