“I think this is kind of the new norm, I don’t think this is just equipment and supplies for 2020, I think this is what’s going to be happening going forward,” said Blaine City Clerk Cathy Sorenson.
Elections officials urged voters to vote from home to protect everyone from being part of a large election day crowd.
“There is no doubt in my mind that an election held during a pandemic will have to rely a lot more on a strong push for participation by mail,” Simon said. “Our highest priority is the safety of people,” he said.
Voters responded. Anoka County accepted a record 116,000 absentee ballots. That’s more than half the county’s registered voters and dwarfs the last record set in 2016. It was a heavy load and took extra temporary workers and new equipment to keep up.
“We’ve been able to keep up with the demand we’ve been able to send out ballots to voters that request them on a next day basis,” said Anoka County Elections Manager Paul Linnell.
Secretary Simon put it this way in a North Metro TV interview: “Especially given the unprecedented tidal wave of absentee ballots, I mean blowing away all past records, they’ve really had to step up.”
Then, just five days before Election Day, a potential game changing decision came from an appeals court. The ruling said absentee votes received after the polls closed would be set aside in case of a future challenge. They would still be counted until a court rules otherwise.
“They’ll be separated out, we’ll have the results for all ballots that are received through Election Day and we’ll have those totals so in the event that a court throws out the ballots that come in after Election Day, we can go back to those totals and certify those results,” says Linnell. “We will continue to count and as long as those ballots remain valid they will be included in our results total.”
Holding an election in a pandemic with some highly contested political races hasn’t been easy for anyone, but Secretary Simon says voters found a way to be heard.
“I think Minnesotans always find a way to vote even in a once in a century pandemic,” Simon said. “We’re number one in voter turn-out in the country for a reason, and that’s because people really want to vote.”
