Minnesota's Primary Election Is Today

Polls Close at 8 PM. (Scroll down for the bonus infographic).

Aug 11, 2026

Local election judges welcome voters at a Minnesota polling place, with check-in tables, ballots, voting booths, and a Vote Here sign in a warmly painted community-center scene.

Here’s What You Need to Know Before Then.

At 7 o’clock this morning, at community centers across the southwest metro, your neighbors unlocked the doors, plugged in the coffee pot, and started checking people in. Retired teachers. Guys who coach youth hockey. The woman who works the desk at your clinic. That is who runs a Minnesota election.

They will be there until 8 tonight. If you haven’t yet voted, go see them.

Here is everything you need, and it isn’t much.

Find where you vote

Enter your address at the Secretary of State’s Polling Place Finder. It shows your polling place and your sample ballot in about ten seconds.

Check even if you have voted at the same place for fifteen years. Precinct boundaries move and buildings change.

Polls are open until 8 p.m. If you are standing in line at 8, you still get to vote. Stay in line.

And if your boss is the problem: Minnesota law gives you time off work to vote without losing pay, personal leave, or vacation time.

What to bring

If you are already registered: Nothing. You sign the roster, confirm your information is correct, and you’re voting. No photo ID required.

If you are not registered: You can register at your polling place today. Bring proof of who you are and where you live. A Minnesota driver’s license, learner’s permit, or state ID with your current address does it. So does a photo ID paired with a current utility bill. A registered voter from your own precinct can also vouch for you.

Nobody gets turned away for asking questions. The election judges are there to help you.

One column, all the way down

This is a primary, so the partisan races are laid out in party columns.

Pick one column and stay in it. If you cross over and vote for candidates from more than one party, your votes in those partisan races will not count.

Minnesota does not have party registration. You decide in the booth, and nobody records which column you chose. The nonpartisan races on the back of the ballot are open to everyone.

Still holding an absentee ballot?

Do not bring it to a polling place. They cannot accept it there. Deliver it in person to the county election office that sent it to you, by 5 p.m. today.

How to follow the results tonight

Statewide returns post at electionresults.sos.mn.gov after 8 p.m.

Watch it for twenty minutes and you will see totals jump. That is normal. Precincts finish their counts at different times and report in batches. A number that leaps at 9:40 does not mean ballots appeared out of nowhere; it means a precinct finished its work and sent it in.

Nothing you see tonight is official. Election night totals are unofficial results. Local officials review the records, and canvassing boards certify the outcome in the days that follow. That gap between “unofficial” and “certified” is not a loophole. It is the audit.

Share the picture

Minnesota election security infographic showing local election workers administering and checking votes through five checkpoints: polls close before counting begins, voter check-ins are matched to ballots cast, absentee ballots are cross-checked against polling-place records, in-person and absentee totals are combined, and local officials review and certify results after election night. The infographic emphasizes that Minnesota elections are administered locally and that every vote and total must reconcile before results become official.

This infographic illustrates the whole chain: Voters checked in against ballots cast, absentee ballots cross-checked against polling place rosters, totals reconciled, results reviewed before they ever become official. Five checkpoints, every one of them run by neighbors.

There is an enormous amount of noise out there about whether our elections can be trusted. The best answer to noise is a clear picture of how the work actually gets done.

Download this infographic (right click, choose Save Image As…). Post it. Text it to the relative who needs it. Tag SWCrier.com if you would like, or don’t; the point is that it travels.

Then go vote. The doors are open until 8.

David

Chaska Protests

Every Friday from 3:00–4:00 p.m. at the corner of Chaska Blvd. and Chestnut Street (Highway 41) [Map]

Every Saturday from 1-2 pm at the corner of Hazeltine Boulevard and Highway 41 (Chestnut) [Map]

Chanhassen Protests

Every Saturday: 1^st & 3^rd Saturdays from 10-11am at Pedestrian Bridge over Highway 5.

2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Saturday from 10-11am at W 78^th and Kerber Boulevard.

Park at Discovery United Methodist Church. We have permission to park there. Sign library is available.

Norwood Young America

Every Sunday, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (Line up at the bike path south of Highway 212 and Faxon.)

Victoria

Every Wednesday from 4:30-5:30 pm on the corner of Highway 5 and Victoria Drive/County Rd 11.

Waconia

Every Saturday from 11:30-12:30 pm at Highway 5 and County Road 10 in front of the Starbucks and Jersey Mike’s. [Map]

SW Protectors

Every first and third Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:00 pm. It’s no cost and come and go as you like.

Please do buy something to eat or drink, though, to support our venue, which is The Bellows restaurant and it’s located at 232 Pioneer Trail in Chaska.

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