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Early voting starts Friday

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Local election officials brace for record participation mail ballot requests
By
Mavis Fodness

Early voting opens Friday, Sept. 18, for the Nov. 3 general election, and the Rock County Auditor-Treasurer Office will be busy filling absentee ballot requests.
More than 500 registered voters are waiting for the official ballots, slated to arrive in the mail the week of Sept. 28.
Auditor-treasurer Ashley Kurtz estimated a week for her office to assemble the ballots with instructions and place them in the mail.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” she said. “It’s good that people want to vote.”
Her office received an average of a dozen calls a day since the state’s Aug. 11 primary, inquiring about the general election early voting option.
Any registered voter in Rock County can ask for an absentee ballot, due to revisions in election rules.
There are 5,000 registered voters in Rock County, with 2,000 of those voters living in mail ballot precincts where there are no longer in-person voting locations.
Locally reasons given for early voting range from avoiding waiting in line at polling places to not wanting to be exposed to large groups due to the coronavirus.
Kurtz said none of the callers have questioned the validity of voting through mail ballot versus voting in person.
She said her office follows the state’s stringent checks and balances to prevent fraudulent voting.
Her office also goes to extra lengths to make sure all votes are counted.
For the Aug. 11 primary election, 677 mail ballots were received in Kurtz’s office along with 173 absentee ballots.
More voters are opting to mail in their ballots
“As a comparison, in 2018 we accepted 50 absentee ballots, and in 2016 only 38,” Kurtz said. “We saw 3 1/2 times more absentee ballots.”
Once received by mail, the ballots are logged into the computer and are physically examined for completeness.
The most common oversight is not signing the envelope before mailing.
“If it (the envelope) is missing a signature, we will call them or contact them by any means possible,” Kurtz said.
Those individuals personally signed the primary ballot in the auditor-treasurer’s office.
One ballot, however, remained rejected due to the person’s recent move from a mail ballot precinct to an in-person voting precinct.
Kurtz said the person was able to vote at the precinct by showing proof of address.
The postal service will again assist in getting ballots to the Rock County Courthouse for counting.
Kurtz said postal officials made extra trips to the regional distribution center to pick up ballots.
Mailed ballots must be postmarked by the election date, but in the case of the primary, the ballot could arrive two days after the election date and still be counted. For the general election, there are seven extra days.
“It means I can’t finalize results until then,” Kurtz said. “(But) it doesn’t mean you can turn the ballot in late.”
Absentee and mail ballots are not counted until Election Day, when the ballot envelopes are opened and official ballots are run through the ballot counting machine.
A common error with mail-in ballots, Kurtz said, is when a voter fails to correct an error in one of the races as instructed.
While the rest of the votes are not rejected, the race where more than one candidate is selected is rejected, unless the voter followed instructions to show which candidate was intended.
In some cases, voters can contact the Auditor-Treasurer Office for a new ballot.
Absentee ballots can be requested until Nov. 2.
Ballots for mail-in precincts will be mailed after Sept. 24.
For more information about requesting an absentee ballot or correcting a voting error, visit the Minnesota Secretary of State website, sos.state.mn.us, or contact the Rock County Auditor-Treasurer Office at 507-283-5060.
In-person absentee voting is also available Sept. 18. Call the Auditor-Treasurer Office for an appointment.

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