St. Paul voters appeared ready to hand the city council the authority to craft new civil fines — or non-criminal penalties known as administrative citations — to crack down on scofflaws who violate city ordinances.

A question on Tuesday’s citywide ballot sought voter approval to amend the city charter, or municipal constitution, to allow the council the power to create new fine ladders around ordinance violations. Late Tuesday returns showed “yes” votes rolling in with a solid lead, 68% to 32%, with 78 of 86 precincts reporting.

“I think people, once they learned about administrative citations, it was almost unanimous that they understood it was a common-sense tool,” said Matt Privratsky, chair of the “Vote Yes for a Fairer St. Paul” campaign, as results came in.

“There was almost no on

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