Minnesota early voting on pace to exceed 2018 but fall far below pandemic
Minnesota is on pace to accept more absentee ballots for this year's election than it did in the 2018 midterms — but far fewer than during the pandemic.
As of Thursday, the state had accepted 282,277 absentee ballots, about 33,000 more than at this time four years ago, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State's office.
The total falls far below the record number of absentee ballots accepted for the 2020 election during the COVID-19 pandemic. That year, 1.9 million Minnesotans voted absentee as the virus spread widely.
The data released Thursday suggest early voting has returned to levels seen before the pandemic, as fewer Minnesotans are concerned about voting in person on Election Day.
But Secretary of State Steve Simon said this year's absentee ballot total signals that more Minnesotans have warmed to early voting.
"It's very interesting to me that we are ahead of the pace for absentee balloting in 2018," Simon said. "I think there were a number of Minnesotans that in 2020, sort of got a taste for voting from home in particular and liked it."
In 2020, 58% of Minnesotans voted absentee, Simon said, compared to 24% in the 2018 midterm elections. The Democrat expects this year's final absentee voting rate to be higher than four years ago.
New absentee ballot data will be released next Friday, just days before the Nov. 8 election, giving state officials their most comprehensive look yet at early voting trends.
Absentee ballot rejections are up this year, with 6,260 rejected so far compared to 4,122 at this time in 2018.
Nearly 40% of this year's absentee ballot rejections are attributed to missing witness signatures, according to the secretary of state's office. That signature requirement was waived in 2020 to ease voting access during the pandemic, but this year it's back in place.
"Signatures in general account for a very large percentage of the error," Simon said. "Either they didn't have one or it was the wrong person, or the voter signed it twice."
About 20% of the rejected ballots had no listed address, title or notary stamp.
Local officials will contact those whose ballots have been rejected and send them a new one, according to the secretary of state's office.
Minnesotans can track their absentee ballot online on the Secretary of State's website. Ballots must be received — not postmarked — by Election Day.
Candidates for governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state auditor, U.S. Congress and the Minnesota Legislature are on the ballot this year. Democratic Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison are facing Republicans Scott Jensen and Jim Schultz, respectively. And Simon is running for a third term against Republican Kim Crockett, who wants to limit early voting.
