Denise Anderson’s 2024 election report
- Very smooth and quiet election. Election officials were very prepared, and put a lot of effort into that.
- New this year put strain on election officials, per mn legislature
- Had to be open 2 Saturdays before the election. 81 people took advantage of this.
- Had to be open until 7 pm the night before the election, and they were very busy. 329 people came through that Monday.
- Had to be open Saturday and Sunday before the election. Busy – weren’t prepared for how busy we would be. 204 people on Saturday and 205 people on Sunday. People wanted to vote early. Heard that some of them wanted to vote at the Rice County government services building because they were afraid of what would happen at the polls. They were afraid to go to their polling place, but nothing bad ended up happening at polling places.
- 399 people come through
- Staff have been working for 13 days in a row and are exhausted.
- Election Day was very peaceful.
- The thing that really hurt us this year was that the state made the change that you have to accept absentee ballots until 8 pm, not 3 pm as before. Did have absentee ballots come in those later hours. Got about 10 that came in at 7:30 pm. Some counties did not have results until around two am because of this.
- City of Northfield was asked to do a pop up early voting day on October 10. 300 people went through that day — anyone in Rice County could vote that day. Carleton and the City did a great job. They learned some things to do differently. St Olaf right now has no interest because their polling place on campus. Carleton is likely to do this permanently. Ideally, next time, it will be done as direct balloting, rather than absentee. That would reduce the work on staff. But the law needs to change for that.
- Voter turnout in 2024 in Rice County: 89.94%
- 2022: 72.86%
- 2020: 90.68%
- 2018: 7
- Statewide 2024: 76% turnout across the state of Minnesota.
- New registrations 4,304 — likely attributed to the colleges.
- Election day voting
- 67% voted on election day
- 33% voted early
- Healthcare voting at facilities
- 248 healthcare in person
- 102 in northfield
- 10 in lonsdale
- 136 in Faribault
- Oversees ballots
- 200 oversees ballots
- 12,008 absentee ballots actually accepted
- 3,037 absentee ballots mailed out
- Hoisington: How do you get a ballot mailed to you?
- Anderson: They have to apply for it, if they haven’t filled out the form for the permanent absentee ballot
- Hoisington: If you did get an absentee ballot, and then didn’t fill it out, and went to the polling place, how does that work?
- Anderson: That’s fine, because there is no record of an accepted ballot in the voter roles, in the poll pad. We did have two people try that, we think they were trying to test the system, and they were not able to vote
- Q: What do you do with the five absentee ballots received late?
- You will get a letter from the county saying your ballot was received late. County stamps it as late, and does not open it.
- Lots of people calling this year to ask if their ballot has been accepted.
- Secretary of State’s website needs to be revamped, and they know that.
- There was a man who had a seizure at a polling place. He got emergency care and then came back and voted later that night.
- Hoisington: Any elections close enough to warrant recount?
- A: No
- Today, election canvassing board will select two precincts to hand recount to prove that they results are correct. One precinct has to be over 150 ballots. Largest precinct has more than 3,080 voters — P3 in Faribault
- Selected precincts:
- 65 – Morristown City
- 155 – Wheeling Township
- Selected precincts:
- Voracek: When League of Mayors was in town, they discussed that staff were heavily taxed by seven days of voting.
- Anderson: Right. We can’t bring in temps, because of the importance of the job. And it’s hard to figure out when to give people time off, especially when you don’t know how many people will come.
- Voracek: Any complaints this year?
- Anderson: Two incidents will be turned over to county attorney
- Docken: Really pleased with how calm and smoothly everything went.
- Hoisington: Has had zero complaints about how things were run. When we transfer our numbers to the state, that’s all done electronically. But we have a paper ballot to cross check, so if there were ever any discrepancies, we have a paper ballot to validate them. 25% of the public has some distrust in our system. To know that there is a hard copy, should settle any issues that people have.
- Anderson: Staff spent eleven hours proofing everything. But they can’t touch the ballots until the post election review, when there will be a hand recount of the selected ballots.
- County had 409 election judges in Rice County.
- Hoisington: Do we give them thank you notes?
- Anderson: No, but we could send out a thank you email. City clerks also all did a great job.
- Hoisington: Do we give them thank you notes?
- Docken: How much do absentee ballot mailing cost the county?
- Anderson: We will get that information and report it out.
- Voracek: How do you handle when absentee is sent to a person who doesn’t live there anymore?
- The postal service mails it back as undeliverable.
