Minnesota Secretary Of State - Secretary of State Steve Simon Prepares Minnesota Voters for Election Day
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Secretary of State Steve Simon Prepares Minnesota Voters for Election Day

August 8, 2022

“For three statewide elections in a row, Minnesota has led the nation in voter turnout,” said Secretary of State Steve Simon. “That’s because Minnesota has a strong culture of voting and civic participation and laws that both ensure every eligible Minnesotan has access to vote and that our elections are secure.”

On August 9, there will be two elections in Minnesota – the Statewide Primary Election and the Congressional District 1 Special Election.

On the Statewide Primary ballot, voters can expect to see state and local partisan and non-partisan races. In partisan races, voters can only vote for candidates of one party. The winners of the partisan races will appear on the November 8 General Election ballot.

Voters in the current Congressional District 1 boundaries will also see a special election on their ballot. The winner will serve in the U.S. House of Representatives starting this fall and ending in January 2023.

Most polling places will be open on August 9 between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m., with a small number of rural polling locations opening at 10 a.m. Find your polling location and view voting hours at mnvotes.gov/pollfinder.

Redistricting

This year voters may notice the races they can vote in, and their polling places, have changed due to redistricting. Every ten years, the boundary lines which divide the state into areas represented by our elected officials, like U.S. Congresspeople or state lawmakers, are re-drawn. These divisions, called districts, are adjusted based on the U.S. Census and other surveys to ensure that they have equal populations and representation in our government.

In Minnesota, new maps of these district lines were produced by a panel of five judges and released to the public on February 15, 2022.

Voters can view their sample ballot at mnvotes.gov/myballot and find their polling place at mnvotes.gov/pollfinder.

Absentee Ballots

As of Monday, August 8, there have been 263,795 requests for absentee ballots, and 128,872 ballots had been accepted. Voters who have ballots at home can bring them into their county elections office before 3 p.m. on election day or vote in person at their polling place on election day.

Election Night Results

Results will be reported on election night after the close of polling places at 8 p.m. Election results can be viewed as they come in on the Secretary of State’s Election Night Reporting webpage. Results will be updated approximately every ten minutes.

Congressional District 1 Special Election Results

Election results for the Congressional District 1 Special Election will be delayed. An alternate results reporting process is being used for the special election. This is because the special election is happening within the current district boundaries and at the same time as the Statewide Primary Election for the new district boundaries.

With this change, the results of the special election office will not be included as a part of the drop-down menus found on the Election Night Reporting webpage. On election night, there will be a link to a spreadsheet of results at the top of the Election Night Reporting webpage.

The method for reporting the special election results includes more manual steps. As a result, counties have been instructed to report these results once they have results for all precincts within their county.