Early voting surging in Minnesota

Early voting numbers hint at a very busy election day in Minnesota.

As of late last week, three times as many absentee ballots had been requested and accepted compared to 2014 — the last year there was a midterm congressional election, as well as a race for governor on the ballot.

Secretary of State Steve Simon says, while early voters are making their minds up ahead of time, that doesn’t preclude having second thoughts closer to the election.

“Under Minnesota law, until seven days before the election, you can go and fish your ballot out of the pile,” Simon said.

Simon added that the early voting numbers aren’t that surprising considering the record setting turnout in the August primaries.

“That tells me that people are fired up to vote and I would imagine we’re going to see a continuation of that feeling on election day,” Simon said.

As of Thursday, 155,721 absentee ballots had been requested in the state. By the same time in 2014, about 50,000 ballots had been requested.