Mail-in voting in Minnesota gets underway as normal after Supreme Court rejects Trump’s order
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Minnesota’s start to voting Friday begins without a cloud over how ballots sent through the mail are handled, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has turned back potential restrictions.
That brings certainty to an increasing number of jurisdictions in the state that exclusively use mail to get ballots to voters.
In some places, Minnesota voters have been voting by mail for decades. State law allows cities with fewer than 400 registered voters and townships of any size to choose to vote exclusively with mail ballots. There are more than 1,100 precincts in Minnesota where registered voters receive a ballot in the mail automatically.
Jenna Weiss lives in Barclay Township just outside of Pine River, north of Brainerd. Her township is one of 43 Cass County precincts — more than half of its total — that vote exclusively by mail.
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“I think it's worked really well,” Weiss said. “It’s convenient in that I get a ballot to my mailbox. I don't have to remember to go to the polling place, which is kind of a benefit."
Weiss said for her rural, remote township, voting by mail makes sense. It can be difficult to find enough volunteers to staff a local polling place. And it's a 45-minute drive to the county seat of Walker.
Weiss said she trusts the mail ballot system, although she has some concerns about the reliability of the U.S. Postal Service as it faces pressure to be more profitable.
"But by and large, I don't really think twice about it,” she said. “I put it in the mail, and I'm pretty confident it's going to get where it needs to go."
Voting by mail has been under scrutiny since President Trump signed an executive order in March. It directed the U.S. Postal Service to use federal citizenship lists in determining which mail ballots it would deliver.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon objected to that proposal.
“This would have, for the first time in its 250-year history, put the U.S. Postal Service in the position of being the traffic cop for voter eligibility and literally not delivering mail to people who ended up on the wrong list,” Simon said.
Minnesota and other states sued. They argued the changes would interfere with states' authority to run elections and would leave elections officials with little time to comply.
The Supreme Court sided with the states and blocked the Postal Service's new rules for mail-in voting — at least for the midterms.
That allowed elections officials in Minnesota to carry on with the work of preparing ballots to send to voters.
About 20 small cities and townships in Stearns County use only mail ballots, said elections director Laura Laudenbach. She said voter turnout in those precincts tends to be higher.
“Just because it’s right in front of them. It’s a little easier to send the ballot back,” she said. “They have a little time to do their research as they’re voting.”
If they prefer, those voters have the option of casting their vote in person at the county service center, Laudenbach said. And they can track their ballot online to make sure it arrived and was counted.
Still, in Cass County, elections administrator Pamela Smith said opinions are mixed about mail voting, and some voters have raised concerns.
“Whether those concerns are about politics or about trusting the mail system or just a personal preference, I can't really say for sure,” she said. “But those viewpoints are present."
The Trump administration claims that mail ballots are vulnerable to fraud. But Minnesota elections officials say the system has safeguards to prevent ineligible people from voting or people voting more than once. They are confident that ballots are securely processed.
“I think one of the misconceptions is that people can double vote,” said Roxanne Gerads, Stearns County’s elections supervisor. “The system does a really good job of flagging those."
Still, some officials worry that the Trump administration's attacks on mail ballots are creating distrust in the voting system.
"There's no question about that,” Simon said. “This has introduced a level of confusion and at least short-term doubt by a lot of voters, and maybe that was the goal all along."
Still, regardless of how they cast their ballot, Minnesotans typically want to vote, Simon said.
The state saw record-breaking turnout for its August primary. With many key races on the November ballot, officials are preparing for another busy election.
Elections officials like Jory Danielson, administrative services director for Crow Wing County, urge voters with questions to contact the Secretary of State’s office or their local elections office.
"Elections are run by our friends and neighbors and even family members in the communities of both major political parties,” he said. “The checks and balances and the procedures that are in place are there to protect the voter, and to protect the ballots.”
