MINNESOTA, USA — At the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office, the man in charge of carrying out a fair and accurate election says he has two wishes heading into Election Day.
"If I could wave a magic wand in this room, I would wish for two things: high turnout and low drama,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon says.
Regarding that first wish, Minnesota is known as a high voter turnout state. From 2016 to 2020, Minnesota ranked first in the nation for voter turnout, but in the last election, Minnesota placed second.
"After three times in a row as number one, the state of Maine did surpass us."
Simon is hoping to bring the title back to Minnesota. This time around his office is educating voters about all the options they have to early, absentee and on Election Day.
As of Monday morning, Simon says nearly 1.2 million Minnesotans had already voted — that's about 27% of all eligible voters.
Simon says that percentage will grow before Election Day and the final number will likely be higher than most previous elections, minus the 2020 election when a majority of Minnesotans voted absentee during the COVID pandemic.
That high number is a great start when it comes to high voter turnout, but Simon says his office is still waiting to receive more than 150,000 outstanding ballots.
"We know that there are more than 150,000 ballots outstanding. They're still out there, they have been issued, but have not been returned yet,” Simon says.
If you're among those Minnesotans who still have a ballot sitting at home, Simon says it's too late to send it through the mail because it won't make it to your election office in time to be counted by the end of Election Day.
With that in mind, Simon says voters have three options to make those absentee votes count. He says voters can fill out their ballot and then hand deliver the ballot to their local election office. Voters can also opt to have a trusted individual hand deliver the ballot on their behalf.
Thirdly, voters can also go to their polling place, and simply, vote in person.
"The system tracks who has an absentee ballot, so when you go into a polling place you will be entitled to vote in person on Election Day, but at that same moment, your absentee ballot will be canceled,” Simon says.
When it comes to Simon's second wish — no drama — his staff is working with the FBI and local law enforcement to stay on top of any cybersecurity threats.
"Both foreign and domestic bad actors are committed to disrupting American elections,” Minnesota’s Election Security Navigator Bill Ekblad says.
Election officials say there are no credible threats against Minnesota specifically at this time.
The U.S. Justice Department also recently announced the agency is monitoring polls in 86 jurisdictions across the country, including Hennepin County, Ramsey County and the City of Minneapolis.
Minnesota's 30,000 election judges are also making final preparations before the big day.
"Every piece of equipment that is used for the election has undergone testing to confirm the equipment is counting ballots with 100% accuracy,” Minnesota State Elections Director Paul Linnell says.
Lastly, Simon says it's important for Minnesotans to have clear expectations when it comes to results.
He says here in Minnesota, election officials should have all or most of the votes counted by breakfast time Wednesday, but many states won't have results ready until much later.
He says that later release time doesn’t mean something is wrong, it simply means that each state has different rules and laws that could slow down the release of election results.
"We want things to go off well. We want ultimately to get to a place of acceptance of the results, no matter who wins, and I think we're heading in that direction. I'm cautiously optimistic."