Posted on 11/06/2016 12:01:38 AM PDT by nickcarraway
More than a quarter of a million people have already voted in Minnesota and the record-breaking numbers are expected to surge as Election Day approaches.
“We are on track to have about 50,000 people voting prior to Election Day in Ramsey County,” said Joe Mansky, the county’s election manager. If that comes to pass, more than 15 percent of Ramsey County residents will be all done with voting before Nov. 8.
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But there’s also something else at play among the thousands who have already cast ballots, Mansky said.
“A lot of people are telling me they’ve just had it, they want to be done with it,” he said.
WHERE ARE THE BALLOTS FROM?
By numbers, Hennepin County, the state’s most populous county, has contributed more ballots than any other county. More than 75,000 Hennepin County voters’ ballots have been accepted as of Thursday morning. That’s about 10 percent of the county’s registered voter population.
In the east metro counties of Ramsey, Washington and Dakota, about 8 percent of voters — 56,000 people — have already voted.
More than a quarter million Minnesotans have cast ballots as of Oct. 27, 1016 (Secretary of State data/Pioneer Press graphic) More than a quarter million Minnesotans have cast ballots as of Oct. 27, 1016 (Secretary of State data/Pioneer Press graphic) View the ballot numbers with registration data here.
IN WHICH COUNTY ARE RESIDENTS MOST LIKELY TO VOTE EARLY?
Many outstate counties use vote-by-mail exclusively in their small cities and towns. In that system, every registered voter is sent a ballot.
In the sparsely population northern counties of Cook and Lake of the Woods, upwards of 80 percent of registrants have already been sent ballots. In McLeod County, 70 percent of registered voters already have ballots in hand.
Voters in those counties are using them. In McLeod County, west of the metro, 31 percent of registered voters have already had ballots accepted. In other counties that heavily use mail voting, the numbers also are in the double digits.
ARE THESE DEMOCRATS’ OR REPUBLICANS’ BALLOTS?
Unlike some states — including the swing states of Florida and Nevada — Minnesota does not have voter registration by party. That means there is no public data that says whether an individual ballot comes from a Democrat, a Republican or an independent voter.
Minnesota’s two major political parties, however, have their own voter lists that identify voters’ partisanship for their own election efforts.
Ken Martin, the chair of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, said that their numbers show that more than 60 percent of the ballots already accepted come from DFL voters. He said a significant portion of those are people who don’t consistently vote but are Democratic partisans.
Keith Downey, chair of the state’s Republican Party, said their numbers show Republicans are “holding their own” in key areas but, since Republicans tend to vote later in the process, they are gaining by the day. He also said he is buoyed by the numbers he is seeing from the swing congressional and legislative districts.
HOW CAN I VOTE EARLY?
You can vote absentee in-person at your local county election office or, in more than a dozen counties — including Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, Dakota and Anoka — at other official locations. Those offices must accept ballots, at a minimum, during normal business hours and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. the last Saturday before Election Day. The offices are open the day before Election Day until 5 p.m.
That in-person option is available only through Monday, Nov. 7.
If you can’t go online to find the correct location to apply for an absentee ballot or cast an in-person absentee vote, you could call their local county offices to get the proper address. Note: The secretary of state’s office recommended that people who wanted an absentee ballot sent to them by mail should have done it by Oct. 7 to make sure the process is completed on time.
No matter how they vote, the deadline is the same: Ballots must be received by Election Day, Nov. 8.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I CAST MY ADVANCED VOTE?
In general, election officials will quickly examine the envelope the ballot came in to make sure it was properly filled out.
If you forgot to get the envelope witnessed, as required by law, or made some other error, election officials will contact you to let you know your ballot will not be accepted and to try again.
“If you did not fill out the signature envelope correctly, election officials will mail you replacement materials, including an explanation for why your signature envelope was rejected. Or, if there are fewer than five days before Election Day, election officials will try to contact you. In this case, you can vote in person at your local election office or at your polling place on Election Day,” the secretary of state’s office says.
WILL MY BALLOT BE SECURE?
Minnesota requires election officials to keep absentee ballot envelopes and the ballots safe.
The state’s rules say: “All retained envelopes shall be placed in a locked, secure location after being dated, stamped or initialed, and recorded. The envelopes shall not be removed from this location or handled, except as necessary in an emergency or to process ballots,” as provided by law.
That means different things in different counties.
In Ramsey County’s St. Paul election location, election officials put ballots in an “old-style” metal ballot box when they are received, Mansky said. When they are removed from there and sorted into precincts, the ballots are kept in a locked room with no windows, specially built for that purpose and accessible only by keycard.
In Chisago County, ballots are placed in a filing cabinet, said Dennis Freed, the county auditor.
Thomas Blaiser of Lindstrom said his fiance voted in that county and saw her ballot tossed into that filing cabinet while it was open. Blaiser said that does not seem very secure.
But Freed said that the filing cabinet is locked whenever staff is not immediately around and is accessible only to office staff. “As we process them they go into a different location that is locked as well,” he said.
The only early voting allowed should be Absentee Voting...with a damned good excuse for not being here on election day...like mine when I was in the service and overseas!
“shut up nube”
It’s “noob”, not “nube”, noob!
Agreed. I haven’t followed this that closely, but I am willing to bet that leftists have been the ones advocating for early voting.
I distrust it implicitly.
Like you said, in the service...overseas, etc.
Yet we have a nation of people that will get in line at midnight to get the latest smartphone - or at Walmart for Black Friday.
Failed excuse!
If you’re trying to play date-of-rank games, “Shut up, Noob”.
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