Early voting: does MN have early voting?

[jean]

I called my precinct voting place and was told no.

But go to this DNC site and hover over MN on the map (scroll down)
http://www.democrats.org/evc/

It says - Early Vote begins Oct 30, 10am - 3 pm

[loveable liberal]

1. polls are open all day, at 0800 i think nt

[Carolab]

2. YES EARLY VOTING IN MN

You were told wrong. Call the precinct and read them out for this.

[dpbrown]

3. Early voting is absentee voting in MN

Call your County Auditor or City or County Clerk's office, not your precinct polling location.

Absentee voting begins 30 days prior to the general election.

[jean]

4. yes - they call it 'absentee voting in person' and the Henn Co Auditor's

office is not able to handle the number of calls coming in.

When I called multiple times today their tape said "Due to an extreme number of calls we cannot take your call. Please call back."

Henn. County Auditor's office: 612-348-5151


As I understand it, there are certain locations in the county where you can go and vote 'absentee in person' - the MN equivalent of early voting. My own precinct is not one of them - they don't even know about it.

Too bad the taped message can't include info on the locations for absentee in person voting in Henn. County.

[jean]

5. UPDATE - still didn't talk to a human at the aud.office but here is

the website if you live in Hennepin County and want to figure out where to go to 'vote absentee in person' (I don't think this is very clear, from the website)

http://www2.co.hennepin.mn.us/voterinfo/addrsrchfrm.htm

Plug your house number and street name in and it will bring up a window of info for your residence.

[question everything]

7. If you live in a city, go to city hall. You should be able to vote in

person on the spot, after asking for an absentee ballot and give a reason for why you will not be able to vote Nov. 2 - like being out of town or disability problems.

I think that this is what we will do - once I go over the complete ballot.

In California one can request an absentee ballot and fill and deliver or mail it. And some seniors can have a permanent absentee voter, they don't need to ask for a ballot each cycle, they are mailed to them automatically.

I would think that with Minnesota, with the unpredictable weather, it would make sense.

[dflprincess]

6. I took my Mom over to Bloomington City Hall today so she could vote

Her back is so bad I finally convinced her that this was better than risking standing in a long line on election day.

They called it absentee voting. I think in most areas it is done at city hall.

First, she had to fill out a form requesting an absentee ballot - you have to check a reason as to why you need to vote absentee (medical/disability, you'll be out of your precinct on election day and I can't remember the third option). Then you're given the ballot and asked if you want to take it home to fill out and mail in. Mom opted to vote there. They have regular voting booths available. After you vote, you place your ballot in an unmarked enevlope and seal it. Then you place that envelope in another envelope that you have to sign. Your precinct is marked on that ballot and it will be taken to your precinct on election day so an election judge can feed it into the scanner.