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Election 2020
The Associated Press and MPR News Staff

Minnesota ballot-tracking website restored after going down; database issues slow voting

Voters check in to vote at the Hennepin County Government Center
Voters check in to vote at the Hennepin County Government Center on Tuesday in Minneapolis as early voting began for county residents.
Jim Mone | AP

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A website that Minnesotans can use to track their absentee ballots went down for more than an hour Saturday morning, along with other parts of the state’s online voter registration system, with just three days to go until the Nov. 3 election.

The issue was causing some longer wait times for early voting on an already-busy day.

The problem was an apparent hardware issue impacting the online tools for voters and some functionality in the Statewide Voter Registration System, said Risikat Adesaogun, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Steve Simon.

The public-facing ballot-tracking site was restored by about 10:15 a.m., but there were lingering issues with the database used by election officials.

Adesaogun said there is a backup procedure that allows officials to handle absentee votes even when the Statewide Voter Registration System is down. But it's a paper backup system, which can slow the process.

State officials were still working as of noon to fully restore the system.

The ballot tracking site has seen an surge of use as a record number of Minnesotans vote early this year. But those looking Saturday morning to check whether their ballot had been received and counted encountered an error message until the problem was solved.

Lines formed at a number of early voting centers on Saturday morning as Minnesotans heeded the call to drop off their absentee ballots in-person, instead of mailing them in — or to vote early.

A federal court ruling Thursday left the door open to challenges of the validity of mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, even if they are postmarked by Tuesday — so local and state officials are urging Minnesota voters to no longer drop absentee ballots in the mail.