Absentee voting underway in Minnesota

(The Center Square) – Minnesota voters have begun casting ballots for the 2026 general election, making it one of the first states to begin absentee voting.

With the 46-day absentee voting period kicking off last Friday, Minnesota voters have already begun casting ballots across a wide slate of races.

This year, the entire state legislature is on the ballot, along with races for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state and state auditor.

There is also one ballot measure on the ballot. The legislatively-referred constitutional amendment would change the administrative policies for investing and distributing Minnesota’s constitutionally-established Permanent School Fund, which provides funding for public education.

The secretary of state’s office began sending ballots Friday to voters who requested them, while early in-person voting officially begins Oct. 16. However, some in-person locations across the state are already open for absentee voting ahead of Election Day, which is 41 days away.

“You have options,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. “You can vote early in person or you can vote early by mail. Whatever you choose, be a voter.”

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This absentee and early voting push in the North Star state comes as The Heritage Foundation recently ranked it 45th nationally in a new report examining election integrity across all 50 states, as previously reported by The Center Square.

Voter identification was top-of-mind for Don Palmer, senior legal fellow for election integrity at Heritage, who spoke with The Center Square regarding the report and its results.

“On some of the most important areas like voter ID implementation . . . they had some issues,” Palmer said. “There’s probably five or six reforms that could help identify non-citizens and avoid them being on the rolls, and they don't do any of that.”

During a press conference last week though, Simon said Minnesota voters should feel confident in the security of the state’s elections.

“I feel really good about where we are in terms of security,” Simon said. “That’s what we are aiming for in Minnesota is having our polling places be islands of calm.”

According to Simon, that includes spending about $250,000 of state funds to “backfill” security services no longer provided by the federal government.