The 2020 election starts now in Minnesota.
Early voting starts Friday for the November general election that will include local and state races, as well the presidential contest between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
The actual Election Day is Nov. 3, but both men will be in Minnesota Friday, so you know it’s gotten real.
This means two things start Friday:
- If you want to fill out your ballot in person and hand it to an election worker, you can — at early in-person voting locations. Keep reading for them.
- If you want to vote by mail, county officials will begin mailing ballots to people who have already requested them, as well as those who do so now. To be clear: Those ballots won’t arrive Friday, but they’ll start being mailed out Friday.
Several state and local county officials interviewed for this story, including Secretary of State Steve Simon, said they’re not aware of any problems as of Thursday. Here’s some useful info:
WHERE’S MY MAILED BALLOT?
As of Friday, nearly 900,000 requests for mailed ballots have been made to election officials statewide. (This is record-crushing, but it’s a COVID-19 year, so no one is surprised.)
If you’re one of those people and are wondering when you’ll get your ballot, it will depend.
For example, in Ramsey County, “a very big truck” from the U.S. Postal Service will be loaded up late Friday afternoon with as many ballots as election workers have been able to stuff into envelopes, Election Manager David Triplett said. Workers will work through the weekend to complete all the roughly 120,000 requests for mailed ballots — and new requests that will come.
Triplett said he thinks the beefed-up staff will get the job done before the weekend.
In Washington County, however, it might take workers a bit longer to plow through their requests, which numbered around 50,000 Thursday afternoon, Elections Coordinator Nicole Freeman said. “We’re telling people they will all be mailed out by the end of September,” she said.
Why the apparent “delay”? State law doesn’t allow ballots to be mailed out before Friday. Workers couldn’t get much of a head start preparing mailers because the state certified ballots Aug. 28, and counties only received the actual ballots from the printers in the past few days.
You can track your ballot via a feature on the Secretary of State’s website.
In Minnesota, all mailed ballots — both the envelope mailed to voters and the one voters mail back — are paid as first-class mail, so delivery times should be as speedy as any any other first-class mail.
REQUEST A BALLOT
You can request a mailed ballot through the state at mnvotes.org now and for some time.
In fact, Simon announced Thursday that he’s mailing an absentee ballot application to every registered voter encouraging people to vote from home.
This falls just short of attempting to mail an actual ballot to all voters unsolicited — a move that President Donald Trump and his campaign has said they would fight in court.
In an interview, Simon said he views the push for “voting remotely” as a nexus between the democratic process and public health in a year when voter engagement appears to be extremely high.
“The math problem is we’ve got about 3,000 polling places and we’re expecting roughly 3 million voters,” he said. “This is very rough math and it wouldn’t really be like this this, but that’s 1,000 voters per polling place. If we can lighten the numbers of people at polling places, that’s a good thing for public health.”
If you’ve already requested an absentee ballot, don’t request a second one unless you’re informed that your application has been rejected.
Technically, the absolute deadline to mail your ballot in is Nov. 3; all ballots postmarks by Election Day will be counted as long as they’re received by Nov. 10.
However, you should consider some time around Oct. 27 as a deadline, according to recommendations by the U.S. Postal Service, which has warned of potential delays to rapidly delivering a crush of mailed ballots amid a pandemic. You can mail your completed ballot back as soon as you get it.
Triplett’s advice for those who know whom they’re voting for: “Don’t sit on your ballot. Once you receive your ballot, I would complete that in a timely fashion.”
IN-PERSON VOTING
If you want to vote in person, you can at your county election office starting Friday.
Technically, this is absentee voting, so you’ll have to fill out some paperwork that you wouldn’t have to if you were walking into your election day polling place. You do not need to have a reason to vote early absentee in Minnesota.
In addition, many metro communities offer additional places to vote in person. Here are some examples:
Ramsey County — all voters in county:
- County election office at 90 W. Plato Blvd. in St. Paul, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays
- New Brighton Community Center, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays
- Ramsey County Library in Roseville, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays
Additional hours will be offered starting Oct. 31.
Washington County — all voters in county:
- Cottage Grove Service Center
- Oakdale City Hall
- Headwaters Service Center in Forest Lake
- Washington County Gov’t Center in Stillwater
- Woodbury Central Park/RH Stafford Library
Hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays, with additional hours starting Oct. 31
Dakota County — all voters in county:
- County Administration Center in Hastings
Hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Additional hours will be offered starting Oct. 31.
In addition, voters who live in the following municipalities can vote in their city hall: Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Farmington, Hastings, Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville, Mendota Heights, Northfield and Rosemount. Hours vary.
You can also go to these locations and request a ballot. You can also request a ballot at the county’s Western Service Center in Apple Valley, the Northern Service Center in West St. Paul, and at South St. Paul — but you cannot vote early at these three locations.
IN-PERSON DROP-OFF
If you received your ballot in the mail, you don’t have to return it in the mail. You can return it in person to those same locations where you can vote early.
In addition, some counties are offering special ballot drop-off locations.
In Ramsey County, these additional locations will include the Government Center East at 160 E. Kellogg Blvd. in St. Paul, Ramsey County libraries in Maplewood and Shoreview, and St. Paul Public Library branches of Sun Ray, Rice Street and Rondo. Of note: These locations are only for returning absentee ballots, not requesting one or voting in person.
WHEN WILL VOTES BE COUNTED?
Unlike states that have true early voting, no votes in Minnesota will be tallied before Election Day.
In fact, ballots mailed in by voters won’t actually be touched until 14 days before Election Day. That’s a week earlier than in most years.
This “head start,” which was approved by the state Legislature, is designed to speed up the process of actually tallying the votes on Election Day.
Nonetheless, because ballots will be accepted and counted as late as Nov. 10, final and complete results will not be available as soon as Minnesotans are accustomed to.