Election Day 2017
Voters across Minnesota have a chance to vote for mayors, city council and school board members today. Here's a look at what's on the ballot in your area and what's happening at polling places across the state.
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St. Paul picks Carter for mayor; Minneapolis keeps counting
Melvin Carter celebrates his win at the Red Cap Room. Evan Frost | MPR News St. Paul voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly chose Melvin Carter as the city's next mayor.
Carter, a former St. Paul City Council member, won about 51 percent of the vote, dominating a crowded field in the race to replace Mayor Chris Coleman. Council member Pat Harris came in a distant second winning about 25 percent of the vote.
The fact that Carter won more than 50 percent of the vote decided the matter relatively quickly Tuesday night.
Both Minneapolis and St. Paul this year used ranked-choice voting, a system that allows voters to rank their candidates, giving contenders a chance to win even if voters didn't consider them a first choice.
While Carter's 51 percent quickly ended the drama in St. Paul, the Minneapolis mayoral race was shaping into a five-way battle between Jacob Frey, Nekima Levy-Pounds, Raymond Dehn, Tom Hoch and incumbent Mayor Betsy Hodges. Late Tuesday night, Frey was in the lead for first-choice votes, snagging 24.97 percent of them. Hoch was next with 19.27 percent of first choices, followed by Hodges with 18.08 percent.Since none of the Minneapolis candidates won a majority of votes in the initial count, election officials must continue moving through the ballots, counting voters' second and third choices until one candidate snags a majority.
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Your guide to voting in Minnesota's 2017 municipal elections
Your all-inclusive guide to help you dot your I's, cross your T's and get yourself set for Election Day: Nov. 7, 2017.Heading to the polls today? Let us know what you're seeing. Long/no lines? Big/low turnout?Tweet us at @MPRnews#ElectionDay2017Or, share your voting experience with us on Facebook here. -
Minneapolis mayoral race
Snapshot: Who's running for Minneapolis mayor and why
Sixteen candidates are on the ballot for Minneapolis mayor this year. Here's a look at five of the people in the running. -
St. Paul mayoral race
Snapshot: Who's running for mayor in St. Paul and why
Ten candidates are on the ballot for St. Paul mayor. Here's a look at five of the people in the running. -
What to watch in Tuesday's elections across the country
In odd-numbered years, Election Day is a hodgepodge of races. But in an era when all politics is national, these low-profile elections have a lot to say about the direction of the country. -
Are you breaking the law if you post a ballot selfie? In Minnesota, they're allowed as long as they're not shown to fellow voters at the polling place or capture another person in the photo.
Can you take a ballot selfie in Minnesota? Yes, but...
Secrecy in the voting booth has become a thing of the past for those ready to share their views and daily lives on social media. -
Aven (center) poses for the camera with an "I Voted" sticker, accompanying Aryca Myers (right) to the polls at Sabathani Community Center during the Minneapolis City elections. Aryca came out to vote because she felt that "Its important, we'd like to see some changes." Photo by Chris Juhn for MPR News. -
Samantha Compean (right) talks to voting staff about casting a ballot at Sabathani Community Center for the Minneapolis City Elections. "It's important to vote for local people. They decide whats happening in the city," she said when asked about what brought her out. Photo by Christopher Juhn for MPR News -
About that great tradition of big voter turnout in Minnesota...
Minnesotans love to brag about our great voter turnout. But those bragging rights are only earned when statewide races are on the ballot. During municipal elections, like the ones happening across the state today, voters in Minneapolis and St Paul have traditionally turned out in very low numbers.Greta Kaul writes in Minn-Post:Take the most recent municipal election, in 2013. At a time when there was an open seat for mayor, just 28 percent of citizens of voting age in Minneapolis cast a ballot. Turnout was even worse in St. Paul, where 16 percent of that group voted in the election.
That’s compared to the national averages for municipal elections of between 27 percent and 34 percent, and is a fraction of the 76 percent of citizens of voting age in Minneapolis, and 71 percent in St. Paul, who cast a ballot for president in 2016.
“As best I can tell, it’s the lowest turnout we’ve had in an election for mayor in at least 30 years,” Ramsey County elections manager Joe Mansky said after the 2013 election.MPR News reporter Laura Yuen will have an update on voting and how turnout is looking so far today on All Things Considered at 3:48 p.m. Stream it live here. We will share new info as we have it here throughout the night. -
The man who was mayor of Minneapolis for just one day
Dick Erdall held the seat after the city's elected mayor resigned early. Erdall was the last Republican to be mayor of Minneapolis. -
In Minneapolis, ballots low or gone at many polling places
"Stay in line" is the message to voters in Minneapolis still at the polls, says city clerk Casey Carl.
Several polling places have run out of ballots throughout the day, and 25 to 30 are running very low, Carl said Tuesday night.
And "our pool of available ballots is running low," he said.
Elections workers in Minneapolis are trying to get new ballots printed as quickly as possible, Carl said.
If you get in line by 8 p.m. when polls close, you can still vote — even after 8.
Why the issues? Turnout is high, and there are have been more spoiled ballots than usual, Carl said.
Many ballots were spoiled by voters making mistakes while filling out their ranked choices. For example, Carl said some people marked their choices all in the first column, invalidating the ballot, rather than choosing one candidate for each of the columns. -
By the numbers: Schools
- School referendum numbers: 38 districts with bond referendum/capital project levy (building money) on the ballot
- 52 districts with operating levy referendum, 18 of which are renewals with no proposed tax increase
-- Solvejg Wastvedt, MPR News
