City Of Minneapolis: Be Prepared For Election Day

Press release from the City of Minneapolis:

November 1, 2021

Tomorrow is Election Day, and while many registered voters in Minneapolis cast early ballots, thousands of others will be heading to their polling places to vote.

Voters who completed and mailed back their early ballots should check the online ballot tracking tool tomorrow morning. If the tracking tool indicates that their ballots has not yet been accepted, they should look up their polling place and go vote in person.

Voters can vote in person as long as election officials have not yet received and counted their mail ballots. Elections staff at polling places check to see if they’ve received and counted mail ballots from voters who want to vote in person. Voters are given ballots as long as the City has not received and counted mail ballots from them. Any uncounted mail ballots from people who have voted in person will be cancelled and not counted (even if election officials receive it later).

Mail ballots drop-off ends 3 p.m. tomorrow

Mail ballots drop-off ends 3 p.m. tomorrow

At this point, voters who still have their completed mail-in ballots should not mail them in. Instead, they need to be dropped off at Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services, 980 E. Hennepin Ave. by 3 p.m. tomorrow. Mail ballots cannot be dropped off at polling places.

Voters who have completed early ballots but miss tomorrow’s 3 p.m. deadline to return them can instead vote at their assigned polling places, which are open until 8 p.m. Election Day.

Sample ballots available online

Sample ballots available online

State law allows voters to bring materials into the polls to help complete their ballots — and the sample ballot is the single, best tool available for this purpose. By downloading and printing their sample ballots (which are customized to their specific ward and precinct), voters can practice marking their ballots. They can bring this marked-up sample ballot as a reference to the voting booth when completing their official ballots. This is the best way to reduce the time spent waiting in lines.

Find sample ballots for all 134 Minneapolis precincts at vote.minneapolismn.gov/voters/ballot.

Results on ballot questions

Results on ballot questions

On election night, the best place to get initial results on ballot questions will be the Secretary of State’s website and the City’s elections website. Because there is no additional tabulation needed with ballot questions, we expect that unofficial results will be available on election night.

As a reminder, Minneapolis charter amendments need at least 51% "yes” votes in order to pass (not 50% plus 1). Only ballots marked with a “yes” or “no” are included in the tabulation of results for ballot questions. Blank ballots are not counted.

Results on elected offices

Results on elected offices

The City will tabulate the election results as quickly as possible. However, because ranked choice voting requires a special tabulation process, some race results will not be known on election night. In races where there is no winner in the first round of counting, those results will be tabulated on Wednesday, Nov. 3.

As each round of counting in each race is completed, those results will be posted in several places:

• On the City’s elections website at vote.minneapolismn.gov
• Minneapolis Elections and Voter Services Twitter: www.twitter.com/votempls

Although it is not possible to know exactly how long the tabulation will take for the races that do not have winners on election night, elections officials plan to complete tabulation and declare an unofficial winner in the mayor’s race as soon as possible.

Time off from work to vote

Time off from work to vote

All voters have a right to take time off work to vote without losing pay, personal leave or vacation time. Any employer found in violation of this law is guilty of a misdemeanor. More information is available on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website.

This press release was produced by the City of Minneapolis. The views expressed here are the author’s own.