Election 2020: What Happened?

LWV of Dakota County and LWV Edina are co-hosting a recap of the 2020 election on Thursday, November 12 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. Our featured speaker will be Kathryn Pearson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. Professor Pearson will provide her preliminary analysis of the 2020 election and take questions from the audience. The event is free but tickets are limited and pre-registration is required via Eventbrite. A link to the Zoom meeting will be sent to registrants the morning of the event.

Election day is here!

Polling places will be open on election day, November 3, from 7 a.m. - 8 p.m. Find your polling place here. A completed absentee ballot may be returned to the office that issued the ballot including official drop boxes, in person, until 3 p.m. on election day. An absentee ballot cannot be returned to a polling place. You can check the status of your absentee ballot here. If your absentee ballot has not been marked as received, you may vote in person at your polling place.

For any questions about same-day voter registration or how to vote in person tomorrow, please visit mnvotes.org or review our Voter Resources page. Additional information about voting on election day, including what to do if you experience any problems, is available here courtesy of the League of Women Voters Minnesota.

Court Rules Absentee Ballots Must be Received by November 3 to Ensure They are Counted

On October 29, 2020, an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 that Minnesota election officials must segregate absentee ballots received in the mail after election day from those received on or before election day in order for a court to decide whether they should be counted. The court did not rule on the merits of the case, in which the plaintiffs allege that counting ballots received after election day violates federal law. Rather, the court ordered that in order to resolve that dispute, mailed absentee ballots received from November 4 through November 10 must be kept separate from other ballots so that a court may determine whether those ballots should count, at least with respect to the presidential election.

If you have not voted yet, you may vote at your polling place on election day, November 3, via in-person absentee voting, or by placing your absentee ballot in an official drop box. The Dakota County offices in Hastings, Apple Valley, and West St Paul will be open for in-person absentee voting from 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, Sunday, November 1, and Monday, November 2. A full list of in-person absentee voting locations in Dakota and Scott counties is available on our Voter Resources page.

Update: Secretary Simon released the following statement on October 30: "In consultation with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, we have decided not to seek a stay of the 8th Circuit decision at the US Supreme Court. We disagree with the court’s decision, and there may be cause for litigation later. While Minnesota will comply with the 8th Circuit's ruling to segregate the ballots received after November 3, we need to emphasize that there is no court ruling yet saying those ballots are invalid. We absolutely reserve the right to make every argument after Election Day that protects voters. For now, our focus is to make sure that every Minnesota voter knows to cast their ballot by 8 p.m. on November 3, and that every ballot legally cast is counted.”