Ready Vote! First day of voting kicks off unusual election season

Friday marked the start of early voting in Minnesota and the day mail ballots were sent to voters.

Michael Stalberger, who oversees elections in Blue Earth County, said people have been chomping at the bit to cast their ballots.

“There have been a lot of calls from people wanting to vote for the past two or three weeks. I told them they have to wait a little longer,” Stalberger said.

As county election offices opened Friday morning, there weren’t throngs of voters waiting. But there was a fairly steady stream of people coming in.

Ethan Sykes, of Eagle Lake, was waiting for the doors to open at the Historic Courthouse in Mankato.

“I’m excited about voting,” said Sykes, who said he never before voted early in person. He has, however, voted by mail before. He lived in Butterfield where all voting is done by mail. Most small towns and many rural townships have for years had all mail-in voting.

Hahn Chang was also waiting for the doors to open. There was no need to ask his voting preference — he is the campaign manager for Dan Feehan, the Democrat running for Congress in the First District.

“I’ve voted absentee by mail before,” Chang said.

County Commissioner Vance Stuehrenberg was one of the first to cast a ballot at the courthouse, where voting booths were spread out and voters entered through one door and out another to allow for social distancing.

“They have it set up well. It really runs smooth,” Stuehrenberg said. “Anyone who is concerned about their vote, I encourage them to vote early.”

Minnesota has already seen a record number of mail-in ballots requested.

Stalberger said they have already sent 14,500 mail ballots to county residents. About half of those were sent to people who requested them. The other half went to townships and small towns that always use mail-in voting.

He expects at least half of all votes this year will be from early or mail-in balloting.

Jaci Kopet, head of elections in Nicollet County, said they saw a steady flow of voters come in Friday.

“Typically the first day of voting is pretty uneventful, but we’ve had a steady stream of people. We had a couple of voters standing in front of the door before we opened, which other years would be unheard of,” Kopet said.

“We’ve never had an opening of absentee voting so eventful as this.”

She, too, expects at least half of the county’s votes will be mail-in or early in-person votes. “Requests are coming in in piles.”

Already 3,700 people have requested mail ballots, or about 20% of all voters. Another 20% of voters in the county are in areas where they do all mail-in voting.

The county set up a system where people check in inside the atrium of the government center in St. Peter and then go up a flight of stairs or via elevator to vote.

“The county board room has been converted to a voting area because there’s more space there,” Kopet said.

She expects to offer more early voting options in the county in the weeks prior to the election, including more places where people can drive up and drop off their ballots.