ST PAUL, Minn. — Hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans voted early statewide, mailing in or dropping off absentee ballots. As of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office reports 773,255 absentee ballots have been submitted statewide and 657,575 of them have been accepted.
The cutoff to hand deliver your absentee ballot was 3 p.m. on Election Day. If you mailed it in, it will not be counted if it arrives after Election Day.
In Minnesota, absentee ballots can be put into ballot counters starting a week before the election. However, they won't be included into a grand total until 8:01 p.m. on Election Day, right after polls close.
Other states, like Pennsylvania, didn't start counting absentee ballots until after polls opened this morning and there's currently a legal battle over which mail-in ballots should be counted in that state, potentially setting the stage for delayed or disputed election results.
In battleground state Pennsylvania, Democrats are suing local election boards, demanding they accept mail-in ballots that are undated or incorrectly dated. It comes after the state's high court sided with Republicans, ordering those ballots not to be counted. The outcome could determine which party controls the Senate.
Meanwhile in Michigan, a judge rejected a lawsuit filed by GOP secretary of state nominee Kristina Karamo, claiming the absentee ballot counting system is flawed and asking that voters be required to vote in person.
In Wisconsin, a judge rejected a request to sequester military absentee ballots. It was filed by state Rep. Janel Brandtjen, a Republican who chairs the Wisconsin Assembly’s elections committee, and others.
Like Pennsylvania, in Wisconsin, clerks only started processing and counting absentee ballots after polls opened. However, you may hand deliver your absentee ballot through 8 p.m. on Election Day. Again, it's too late to do that in Minnesota.
