Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglas, Publisher

With 76.4 percent of eligible voters casting a ballot in the November election, Minnesota looks to continue its streak of having the highest voter turnout in the nation. The only challenger is Wisconsin, which had not yet certified its election results as this was being penned.

Minnesota’s State Canvassing Board — which is tasked with reviewing and approving the state’s election results — met last Thursday to certify the November election.

“We are still, at this moment, in first place in voter turnout,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon told members of the State Canvassing Board. “I’m pretty obsessively pushing refresh throughout the course of most days … Wisconsin trails narrowly.”

The Associated Press is reporting that Wisconsin had a historically high voter turnout in November with nearly 73 percent of eligible voters casting a ballot. The results are unofficial until the results are certified.

“Other than the 2020 election, when voters were encouraged to stay home and vote by mail and vote early, this is the highest rate of absentee voting that we’ve seen for any election here in Minnesota,” said the state’s acting elections director, Paul Linnell.

“This isn’t the end of the road,” Secretary of State Steve Simon told MPR News in an interview after the canvassing board met last week. “It’s possible that a recount will require some sort of adjustment in the final results or the final winning candidates.”

Simon said someone who wants to contest the election could still challenge  certain races in court.

“There are still other avenues to determine the final outcome,” Simon said.

Democrats and Republicans are currently deadlocked in the House with each party holding 67 seats. Demuth and DFL Leader Melissa Hortman are working on a power sharing agreement.   That should make for an interesting legislative session next year.  It could mean some thoughtful, compromise comes about, or it could mean a do-nothing session.  We’ll have to see.

Pope County voters beat state in turnout

Although Minnesota was the nation’s highest in voter turnout, Pope County topped the state by quite a bit.  Pope County Auditor/Treasurer Stephanie Rust told the Pope County Board last week that it was a very busy election for her and her staff at the Courthouse, which is the primary voting place for many precincts in Pope County.  Of the 31 precincts in Pope County, 17 of them are mail-in precincts so residents in those precincts vote in person at the Auditor/Treasurer office on the first floor of the Pope County Courthouse.

In this year’s election, there were 7,880 registered Pope County voters at the beginning of the election period.  There were 613 newly registered for the election, bringing the total registered voters to 8,492.

“And we had 7,260 who voted, she added.  “That means 85.4 percent of Pope County’s registered voters voted in the election.”   

While the state and the county’s great turnout is to be recognized, we can’t help but wonder why some choose to simply skip elections.  Voting is an incredible privilege and should never be taken for granted.  We’ll probably never get to 100 percent, but the high 90s should be our goal.