Minnesota continues counting absentee ballots ahead of Election Day

(FOX 9) - If you voted early or plan to, your ballot is being counted now and will be included in Tuesday’s results, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

“So, the ballot is not sitting around waiting to be processed,” said Secretary of State Steve Simon. “It will be processed fairly immediately and put into a machine.”

Early voting sites have been busy, including one in Highland Park reporting a steady stream of voters on the Wednesday before Election Day.

Beginning last Tuesday, any vote cast early, dropped off or mailed-in is already being counted.

“Now, there’s no tallying done,” Simon said. “It’s just that the individual ballot and the voters choices are recorded, but they aren’t all added up together into a tally until after the polls close on Election Night.”

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On Election Night, the votes will be tallied up with the ones cast that day all together.

“They’re all mixed in the same pot and on Election Night, after the polls close at 8 p.m., then they can all be added together,” Simon added.

As of this past Friday, Minnesotans have requested 1.7 million absentee ballots. Nearly 1.2 million ballots had already been cast either through early voting or mailed-in.

The Secretary of State has a ballot tracker tool on its website for those who requested one by mail. Voters can log in and see if and when it was received to put their minds at ease.

Once it has been processed, you can’t go vote again.

Because so many are voting early and a lot of the requested vote-by-mail ballots are coming in already, Simon doesn’t expect Minnesota’s results to drag on.

“In terms of the absentee vote, both in person and absentee and the mail vote, I think we will have substantially all or all of those votes included on Election Night,” Simon said.