Mail-in and early voting surges in Minnesota ahead of Nov. 3 election
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Minnesota has surpassed 127,000 ballots submitted in the early voting phase of the midterm election, marking a big uptick in just one week.
New figures released Friday by the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office show a surge in absentee and mail ballots completed by voters and accepted by local election officials. The total has doubled over the past week.
Most of the ballots were cast via mail. About 48,000 were filled out at in-person locations.
Voting by mail has been under scrutiny since President Trump signed an executive order in March directing the U.S. Postal Service to use federal citizenship lists in determining which mail ballots it would deliver.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
Minnesota and other states sued, arguing the changes would interfere with states' authority to run elections and would leave elections officials with little time to comply.
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the states and blocked the Postal Service's new rules for mail-in voting, at least for the midterms. That allowed elections officials in Minnesota to carry on with the work of preparing ballots to send to voters.
Minnesota doesn't have voter registration by party. Democrats have made a significant early-voting push but Republicans say they are also encouraging voting ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3.
MPR News reporter Kirsti Marohn contributed to this report.
