What to expect on Election Day in Minnesota

WASHINGTON (AP) — Minnesota voters will decide on Election Day how to allocate the state’s 10 presidential votes and whether to promote their two-term governor to vice president.

Minnesota was briefly considered a possible 2024 presidential battleground, but Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris put the state back on safer Democratic territory when she chose Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

Former Republican President Donald Trump narrowly missed winning Minnesota in his two previous campaigns and came within 1.5 percentage points of victory in 2016, while also prevailing against his Midwestern cousins ​​Wisconsin and Michigan . This year, he repeatedly hinted that he would win the state and tried to bolster his arguments with campaign stops in St. Paul in May and St. Cloud in July, just days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Trump has not returned to Minnesota since Walz was nominated on the ticket.

Minnesota has long supported Democrats in the presidential election. In the past 92 years since Franklin Roosevelt’s 1932 campaign, Minnesota has supported only two Republican presidential candidates: Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s and Richard Nixon in 1972.

As the vote continues, voters will decide which party will control both chambers of the state parliament. Democrats held a slim majority in the state Senate until June, when Assistant Majority Leader Kelly Morrison resigned to focus on her campaign to replace outgoing Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips in the 3rd Congressional District. Morrison’s departure left the chamber deadlocked with 33 seats each.

Democrat Ann Johnson Stewart is running against Republican Kathleen Fowke in the special election to replace her in Hennepin County. Johnson Stewart is a civil engineer and former state senator who was elected in 2020. During her single term in office, the redistricting process placed her in the same district as Morrison, leading her not to seek re-election in 2022. Fowke, a real estate agent, was the Republican candidate for the seat in 2022. She received about 44% of the vote to Morrison’s 56%. The winner in November will give her party control of the Senate for two years. There are no additional state Senate seats this year.

In the state House of Representatives, Republicans only need a net gain of a few seats to gain control of the chamber. All 134 seats in the state House of Representatives are up for election in November. About two dozen swing seats are at greatest risk of changing hands, according to an August analysis by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Both the Republican and Democratic national campaign committees have indicated that winning or maintaining control of the Minnesota Legislature is a top priority for 2024.

Control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives is also at stake on Election Day, although the races in Minnesota are unlikely to decide the majority in either chamber. In the race for the US Senate seat, Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar is seeking a fourth term against Republican Royce White. In the U.S. House of Representatives, Phillips is the only incumbent not seeking re-election. The eight-member delegation is evenly split between parties, and the Nov. 5 election is unlikely to upset that balance.

Voters will also decide a nonpartisan state Supreme Court race and a statewide ballot measure to expand an environmental trust fund.

About 27% of voters cast absentee ballots in the 2022 general election. Mail-in ballots must arrive by Election Day to be counted.

The first votes in Minnesota are typically released shortly after polls close at 9 p.m. ET. In the past, these first rounds of voting typically included a mix of votes cast early in person, by mail and at a polling place on Election Day.

Here’s a look at what to expect in the 2024 election in Minnesota:

election day

November 5th.

Survey closing time

9pm ET.

Presidential election votes

10 will be awarded to the national winner.

Important races and candidates

President: Harris (D) vs. Trump (R) vs. Chase Oliver (Libertarian) vs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (We the People) vs. Jill Stein (Green) vs. Cornel West (Justice for All) and three other.

US Senate: Amy Klobuchar (D) vs. Royce White (R) and two others.

Other interesting breeds

U.S. House of Representatives, State House, State Supreme Court and a ballot measure.

Past presidential results

2020: Biden (D) 53%, Trump (R) 45%, AP Race Call: Wednesday, November 4, 2020, 12:13 a.m. ET.

Voter registration and turnout

Registered voters: 3,660,001 (as of Oct. 1, 2024).

Voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election: 85% of registered voters.

Voting before election day

Votes cast before Election Day 2020: approximately 58% of the total votes.

Votes cast before Election Day 2022: approximately 27% of the total votes.

Votes cast before Election Day 2024: See AP Advance Vote Tracker.

How long does it take to count the votes?

First votes reported November 3, 2020: 9:08 p.m. ET.

As of midnight ET: About 66% of all votes cast have been reported.

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AP writers Hannah Fingerhut and Maya Sweedler contributed to this report.

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