The biggest inconvenience to Minnesota voters on Election Day: constant rain

Voters faced wind and rain on Election Day in the Twin Cities and across much of Minnesota. It appears the weather was their biggest inconvenience.

Voting drew to a close this evening with few reports of technical snafus like the widespread ballot-tabulator malfunction that sent election administrators into emergency mode in suburban Westchester County, New York, home to about 1 million people just north of New York City deciding a close Congressional race.

“Things have gone very well today,” a spokesperson for Secretary of State Steve Simon told MinnPost by email. Turnout, she said, appeared to be high.

MinnPost reporters visiting polling places saw nothing to dispute that conclusion. Activity was slow but steady at Simon’s polling place in Hopkins; an elections worker said he expected “ebbs and flows” throughout the day. The scene appeared similar at a polling place in North Minneapolis around lunchtime, one of the few lulls in the day’s steady rainfall.

The presence of about two dozen legal observers from the U.S. Department of Justice, placed in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, drew minimal attention, according to news coverage and social media. Their stated purpose was to ensure election workers complied with federal voting rights statutes. 

Both counties legally declined to allow the DOJ observers inside the 100-foot perimeter around polling places, designated by state law, to shield voters from unauthorized people, including journalists and campaign workers. 

The Democratic minority in the U.S. House of Representatives sent two “constitutional observers” to Minnesota, placing one each in Hennepin and Olmsted counties, Secretary of State Elections Director Paul Linnell said on Nov. 2. 

Unlike DOJ observers, which aren’t named in the U.S. Constitution, Congressional observers have a Constitutional right to enter polling places, provided that they notify election offices in advance, Linnell said. 

“This is a normal process that has been in place for a long, long time,” he said. Congressional observers typically visit “competitive districts,” he added.

Minnesota’s First District, which includes Olmsted County, is considered one of the most competitive House races this year nationwide.

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