For many people who decide to vote early, it was a chance to get some peace of mind.
Just about everyone has made up their mind anyway by now, with early voting underway in Minnesota.
“I’ve been doing it for the last couple of years, and I just wanted to get it over with, so I could relax on election day,” said Paul Walker, who joined others at the Minneapolis early voting center on East Hennepin Ave. the morning of Sept. 20.
“It was such a quick and easy process,” he said. “And there was no line where I got here.”
There was a line when the doors opened at 8:00 a.m. The official tally, as confirmed by The Associated Press, was 17.
And they were done in about 12 minutes (again, an AP confirmation).
Other folks who voted early had convenience on their mind.
Karen Gargis is scheduled for surgery on October 31, which she said would cut it close.
“I’m going to, kind of, be not being able to stand in line,” she said. “I could always vote curbside, but I wanted to do it today.”
Curbside voting at the Minneapolis facility began during the pandemic, and it worked so well, they’re still offering it.
In the words of George Larson, an admitted snowbird, the quicker, the better.
“We live in a van eight months out of the year, a camper van,” he said. “We gotta get here and vote, and then take off. We didn’t have Google Maps back in the day, so you had to wait. At least I did.”
Even though the election day is more than a month away, voters were still caught up in the excitement of getting involves.
Emily LaVelle did have a little disappointment when she approached the front door of the center, turned at the American Flag, and started the process.
“I wanted to see my vote go into a machine, didn’t realize that this is absentee ballot.”
If she had known.
“Probably would have waited until 18 days before to watch it go into the machine.”
By that time, more in-person early voting stations will be open in Minneapolis and the rest of the state, which always are ranked high in voter turnout.
WCCO's Al Schoch was just a tyke when he accompanied his family to the voting booth for the first time. Al's mother exited from behind the curtain and was proud to say she had voted for Richard Nixon. It was Nov. 8, 1960. We know how that turned out.