Strong Turnout Reported Among Minnesota Voters
Under a cloud-covered sky over much of the state, and a bit of snow and misty rain in places, Minnesotans appeared to be enthusiastically turning out Tuesday in a general election that featured a hard-fought presidential campaign nationally and two down-to-the-wire ballot initiatives in Minnesota.
At Woodbury Lutheran Church, nearly a quarter of the 2,500 voters registered at the precinct had voted by 10 a.m., according to head election judge Nancy Showalter.
"I don't know what's bringing everybody out," Showalter said. "It could be either one, either the amendments or the presidential election. If you are not here for one, you are here for the other."
Elsewhere, lines of voters encircled neighborhood blocks, with people at many locations waiting 45 minutes and longer to cast a ballot.
In a state known nationally for high voter turnout, Minnesotans appeared to be on track to bolster the state's reputation.
Most polls opened at 7 a.m., but in some townships voting began at 10 a.m.
At St. Paul's Episcopal Church in the Kenwood neighborhood of Minneapolis, more than 800 people among 1,520 registered voters in that precinct had voted as of 1:15 p.m.
"This precinct usually votes 85 to 95 percent," said election judge Karyne Harstad. "Kenwood people feel that as how they vote, so goes the nation. They feel this is their divine right, and they have to do it."
Elsewhere in Minnesota's largest city, 92-year-old Somali immigrant Abdulahi Aar was among about 1,000 voters who had cast ballots as of 2 p.m. at the Brian Coyle Center in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. "I just came here to vote because I am an American," he said.
At the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center in St. Paul, where two precincts are housed, one of them reported that nearly half of its 2,000 registered voters had cast their ballots by noon.
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