LEWISTON — Voters will decide in November whether write-in candidates have to get a minimum number of votes to win a City Council or School Committee seat.

Councilors on Tuesday approved a list of 11 amendments to the City Charter. The changes include a host of technical and grammatical changes, and changes to some long-standing city policies.

Voters will get to vote on all 11 amendments at the polls Nov. 6.

Councilors approved 10 of the 11 amendments with no disagreement, but Councilor Donald D’Auteuil said he could not support a minimum requirement for write-in candidates.

“I have a real problem and we know there is something wrong here,” D’Auteuil said. “I don’t think we should put something in that’s half right.”

According to the amendments, write-in candidates for any city seat would have to get at least as many votes as the number of signatures traditional candidates must get to qualify for the ballot. There currently is 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.

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

D’Auteuil’s colleagues didn’t share his concerns.

“I don’t think we’re at the point that we all think something is wrong,” Councilor Mark Cayer said.

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 is recused from voting due to a conflict of interest.

Other proposed charter changes are:

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

* Expanding term limits for the Planning Board and the 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 city 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 miss three consecutive meetings. That would apply to the mayor, city councilors, School Committee members, Planning Board members and members of the Board of Appeals.

staylor@sunjournal.