System restored after outage slows early voting process in Minnesota
Error message on the Minnesota Secretary of State absentee ballot status checker website on Oct. 31, 2020
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Many online tools for voters, including the absentee ballot status checker and polling place finder, were unavailable for several hours Saturday morning. The website was showing an error during the 5 a.m. hour and by 9 a.m. was showing a "maintenance in progress" message.
The voter resource tools were back online shortly after 10 a.m., but there have been lingering issues with SVRS. After another brief outage around 3 p.m., officials say issued had been fixed.
"There appears to be a hardware issue impacting the online tools for voters and some SVRS (Statewide Voter Registration System) functionality," a spokesperson for the Secretary of State told FOX 9 Saturday morning. "There is a process for administering absentee ballots when SVRS is unavailable, so voters should still be able to cast an absentee ballot today."
While the system issue persists, voters at polling places will not be placing their ballots directly into voting machines, but will instead their ballots into secure envelopes. Elections officials will the run the ballots through the tabulator when the system is back online.
While Minnesotans can still vote Saturday, the process is slowed down. Many polling places are experiencing long lines. In Chaska, voters waited about three hours minutes to cast a ballot Saturday morning.
"This is a county-wide process, so we’re serving all the precincts in Carver County today which is what leads to these large numbers," said Carver County Election Manager Kendra Olson. "Their polling place will be open on Election Day and there will be a lot shorter lines."
Similar wait times were noted on Friday in the suburbs, including a nearly two-hour wait in Lakeville. Polling places in Minneapolis and St. Paul have seen shorter wait times.
Voters who have already put their ballot in the mail can track their ballot at http://www.mnvotes.org/track and find their polling place at https://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us. If their ballot has not yet been received, the voter can vote in-person either by absentee, or at their polling place on Election Day.
Early voting open in all 87 counties Saturday
On the last Saturday before Election Day, every county in Minnesota must have at least one absentee voting location open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition to your county election office, some cities and towns offer in-person voting. Find your in-person early voting location here.
Do not mail your ballot! Drop it off
Election officials say it is too late to mail an absentee ballot. They are urging people to either return their ballot in-person to the election official office that mailed your ballot or vote early in-person.
Due to a recent federal court ruling, absentee ballots in Minnesota must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day or 3 p.m. if they are being dropped off in-person at the designated county election office.