Early Absentee Voting Looked A Little Light In Hennepin County Today...

Photo, blog post by John Hoff

I voted early because I plan to be out of town on election day, at least until after the polls close. I hope to make it back for some victory parties and/or crying in beer parties, whichever applies. Minnesota is one of 32 states that allows early voting in person, which is called "in person absentee voting" in our state.

If you're there in person, how can you be absent? OK, call it whatever you like as long as my ballot is counted. At the polling location, I didn't witness any interrogation over excuses about why people wouldn't be in town on election day. Whatever you say is apparently good enough, though I suspect if you check the "due to emergency quarantine" box you might get some odd looks.

At about 1:45 PM today at the Hennepin County Government Center, there were approximately 20 people in line not counting talkative small children. In light of the fact this location is serving all of Hennepin County...



...I think 20 people in line isn't very much. I assume people either don't know about this handy early voting option or they don't want to miss the thrill of voting with everybody else on election day. Heck of a thing, though, to revise all kinds of personal plans and/or travel around a process that takes, like, 20 minutes.

My only complaint: why didn't I get a sticker that says I VOTED? I love those things.

By the way, there are a lot of judges on the ballot and, good lord, Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisors. If you want to cast an informed ballot instead of leaving these spots blank or voting in some kind of broad pattern, (for or against all incumbent judges, for example) I suggest doing your research soon.

Or you can just engage in a much easier practice that I'll suggest in a coming blog post but, in summary, WRITE IN JOHN W. HOFF FOR SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICT SUPERVISOR AND EXPERIENCE "A BUZZY FEELING OF ONENESS WITH THE EARTH."