With all that is going on in the world, it is sometimes easy to forget important things. One thing that many people seem to have forgotten is that there is a primary election in Minnesota on August 11th. That makes sense, as we already had our presidential primary on March 3rd, and then many townships had elections on March 10th. But yes, we have another primary - it’s not over yet!
You can vote by mail or in person for the primary from June 26th until August 10th, and July 21st is the last day you can register in advance for the primaries - though don’t forget that Minnesota is one of the states that does same-day registration. I strongly believe that we all should be voting by mail, especially right now as we are still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. As Minnesota is a state where you can vote early without having to give a reason, and there are multiple ways to to request an absentee ballot, there are few reasons to not vote by mail. And yes, your vote will still count - Minnesota does not use provisional ballots.
If you have to go to a physical voting place and you show up as not being registered to vote, you can have a registered voter at your polling place vouch for you; you use your ID with your current name & address; or you can use a photo ID and a proof of your current address. And if you are living at a facility or a shelter, you can have an employee from there vouch for you. If you are homeless or are transient, someone who is registered to vote and can vouch for where you regularly sleep can vouch for you. But remember that we are in a pandemic - do what you can to use an absentee ballot and vote by mail.
And it is very important to vote. I used to say that we don’t want to end up in, as John Oliver put it, the fuck barrel; unfortunately, we are already there and we have to vote our way out of it. And we can do it. So, find your ballot, study who is running, check out NPR’s primary primer and MinnPost’s primary primer, and vote!
Let’s take a look at who is running in Minnesota. The political party abbreviations that will be used are the following:
DFL - Democratic-Farmer-Labor
GOP - Republican
LMN - Legal Marijuana Now
GLC - Grassroots - Legalize Cannabis
United States Senate
United States House of Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
DFL:
Dean Phillips (incumbent)
Cole Young
District 4
GLC:
District 5
LMN:
District 6
DFL:
GOP:
Tom Emmer (incumbent)
Patrick Munro
District 7
DFL:
Stephen A. Emery
Alycia R. Gruenhagen
Collin C Peterson (incumbent)
District 8
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