Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglas, Publisher

Ah, the 2024 General Election is almost here.  By Wednesday, it should be history and we can move on from immersion in presidential politics.

It was interesting to hear from Pope County Auditor/Treasurer Stephanie Rust last week about the popularity of early voting in Pope County.  Of course some of it is due to having more “mail ballot” precincts.  At of the end of the day on Thursday, Oct. 31, Pope County had received 2,543 ballots, according to Rust.  There are currently 7,880 registered voters in Pope County.

Despite the early voting, tomorrow, Nov. 5, will be a busy day at the polls for local election workers.  Having witnessed our election workers in action and at the Auditor/Treasurer offices, I have nothing but respect for them and the job they do.  In the past four years, we’ve heard a lot of BS about unfair elections, but here in Minnesota and especially in Pope County, there are no irregularities that go undetected.

Remember, in Minnesota, votes are counted at the local level.

And at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Nov. 5 when the voting stops — except for the people still standing in line — a bit of a lull sets in, and anxious election watchers refresh the Secretary of State’s website.  Those results come from more than 3,000 polling places to election offices in each of Minnesota’s 87 counties.

Secretary of State Steve Simon reiterated in Sunday’s Minnesota Star Tribune that all ballots are counted at the local level.

“This is a decentralized, spread-out process, by design,” he said. “Our office never touches a ballot. We don’t count the ballots. We just report what other people count. So this all happens at the local level.”

At precincts, elections are overseen by election judges who represent both major parties. The first step to reporting results is an audit to make sure the number of ballots matches the number of voters that day.

“There’s no room for error. It must be a 100% match,” Simon said.

That’s why I have such respect for a local judges and our local election workers in the Pope County Auditor/Treasurer Office.  They are meticulous and detail-oriented and do their jobs election after election.  And they do their jobs well.

I thank them in advance for their service and their concern for the state’s election system and I hope voters treat them with the respect they deserve.

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As a diversion to all the election talk and political issues, it was nice to sit down and watch the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night.  It was even better to watch them get back on the winning track and take care of business against the Indianapolis Colts. My oldest son and his family were at the game at U.S. Bank Stadium and witnessed the raucous crowd, the Skol chant and the Vikings victory.  It was a good game to attend.

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Speaking of football, the Minnewaska Lakers played a good game against a tough opponent and nearly pulled out the victory.  The Lakers football team fell to Albany in the section finals on a last minute touchdown.  Congrats on a great season.