Minneapolis is on pace to have its second-highest early voting turnout for a municipal election, with more than 23,000 people having cast ballots as of Sunday, according to city data.
That means more than 9% of eligible voters have already voted, with the mayor and all 13 Minneapolis City Council seats on the ballot Tuesday, as well as all nine Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board seats and the two elected Board of Estimate and Taxation seats.
The only other municipal contest with higher early voting turnout was in 2021, when 26,082 people had cast their ballots by election day. That election was the first after George Floyd’s police killing sparked global protests and prompted what became an unsuccessful ballot measure that would have dismantled and rebuilt the Police Department.
All the city’s elected offices were up for grabs that year, along with three ballot questions, fueling a record turnout of 54% of registered voters — the highest since at least 1979, according to Jon Martin, deputy director of Elections & Voter Services for the city.
This year’s turnout was actually ahead of the 2021 pace for much of the period since early voting began Sept. 19.
The highest early turnout in the city’s 13 wards so far this year is in Ward 6, which is south and east of downtown. It includes the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, home to a large East African immigrant community that the mayoral campaign of state Sen. Omar Fateh has been pushing hard to vote early. During a recent campaign swing through the ward, most people Fateh encountered said they’d already voted — often for him. As of Sunday, 3,250 people in the ward had voted.
Closely behind is Ward 3, which stretches from downtown north across the Mississippi River and is the ward Mayor Jacob Frey was first elected to represent on the City Council in 2013. He represented the ward until he ran for mayor in 2017.
Polls will be open Tuesday from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Here’s how to vote.
