Voting early; by mail is popular this election
News | Published on November 4, 2024 at 11:53am CST
By Tim Douglass
tdouglass@pctribune.com
Pope County residents and Minnesota voters are busy with early voting.
As of the end of the day on Thursday, Oct. 31, Pope County had received 2,543 ballots, according to Stephanie Rust, Pope County Auditor/Treasurer. There are currently 7,880 registered voters in Pope County so that’s about 32% who voted by mail or voted early.
As of Oct. 31 in previous years, Pope County had received 2,922 ballots back in 2020 and 652 ballots back in 2016 at this time.
“It is hard to compare 2016 and 2020 to 2024. There were more folks voting early and returning their ballots by mail due to COVID in 2020, Rust explained. “In 2016, the number returned as of Oct. 31 was a lot lower at 652, but Pope County only had five mail-ballot precincts compared to the 17 there are now,” she added.
“While it is hard to compare, we have been busier in our office than we have been in the past (not including 2020). I expect it to be even busier as we are getting closer to the election,” Rust said.
State voting early
In the state, Minnesotans have submitted about 240,000 more early ballots this year than in 2016, with five days of early voting still remaining, it was reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune.
About 920,000 absentee ballots had been accepted as of early Thursday afternoon, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office. That’s out of nearly 3.7 million registered voters in Minnesota.
“More Minnesotans voted in the past week than during the first four weeks of voting for this election,” Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement last Thursday. “It’s clear that our state’s long-held commitment to voting and civic engagement remains.”
The latest absentee vote count far exceeds the roughly 677,000 early ballots submitted in 2016 but is well below 2020 numbers. Minnesotans cast 1.9 million absentee ballots amid the pandemic four years ago.
Across the U.S., more than 60 million people have voted early in the 2024 general election, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
Results might take longer to be reported in Minnesota on Election Day, thanks to a recent change in state law that gives voters until 8 p.m. Nov. 5 to drop off absentee ballots.
In past elections, absentee ballots had to be received by 3 p.m. to be counted, so the change aligns the absentee deadline with when the polls close at 8 p.m.
