voters who went to the polls in a non-presidential election year.
Now one veteran political analyst predicts another record will be set in the November general election.
“It’s impressive. In Minnesota we vote, we are always setting records. These are some historic events,” said Brian McDaniel, professor of American Government at Concordia University-St Paul and political analyst on TPT’s Almanac program.
Approximately 1.1 million Minnesotans, or 25% of the state’s eligible voters, cast ballots during the August primary voting period. Democrats accounted for a disproportionate number of those votes, casting around 700,000 of of them.
McDaniel warns that’s an indicator that the state’s DFL base of voters appears more motivated heading into November.
“That should be concerning for Republicans; there’s an enthusiasm gap. Right now the Democrats have the advantage, McDaniel said.
McDaniel predicts that the fractured mood of the times will drive large, perhaps record, numbers to the polls in the upcoming election.
“People are mad, not one side or another. Republicans are mad about fraud, they want to hold people accountable. Democrats are looking at what happened with Operation Metro Surge and they’re madder than heck heck about it,” he said.
“One of the things we saw in the Flanagan versus Craig race (in the DFL Senate runoff), it could be said that people were madder at Angie for her votes on immigration stuff (in Congress) than they were at Peggy for the oversight she might have had over fraudulent activity (as lieutenant governor).”
Minnesota is already attracting national media attention for the candidates at the top of the ballot. A quartet of women, two Republicans and two DFL’ers, are working to win the votes in the race for governor and US Senator.
“We have four very accomplished women. On the Republican side, Lisa Demuth was Speaker of the House and Michele Tafoya was on Monday Night Football, highest level for sports announcing in her field. On the DFL side, Amy Klobuchar is our sitting senior senator and previously a prosecutor. Peggy Flanagan was a school board member, legislator and lieutenant governor. All of them are going to be able to carry themselves in an impressive way. I can’t wait to see the debates because they are going to be humdingers.”
McDaniel expects to see plenty of polling in the coming months to tap the electorate’s intentions. But he tells voters to take the polls with the proverbial grain of salt.
“If you would have looked at the polls, you would have thought the race between Flanagan and Craig was neck-and-neck when Flanagan won that race 20 points. It looked like (Republican candidate) Mike Lindell was far ahead of (House Speaker) Lisa Demuth. She ended up winning by 11 points,” he said. “That’s the echo chamber you have to be really careful of. That’s why you have to be a good consumer of the news, not just checking one source.”
Across Minnesota, early voting by absentee for the November general election begins on Sept 18. In every county, voters can have an absentee ballot mailed to them or they can vote at an early voting center. Voters need to know their Minnesota ID number or their social security number to fill out the application.
McDaniel said that he hopes that all Minnesotans will take the time to educate themselves before they vote.
“You shouldn’t just say I’m Republican or I’m a Democrat. You need to learn about the candidates and sometimes the Democrat is going to be the one that best represents your interests and and sometimes its the Republican. You don’t have to pick just one side or the other,” he said. “In Minnesota, we do a pretty good job of ticket splitting.”
For more information on how to register to vote, where to vote, what races will be on your ballot, where to vote early and more, visit the nonpartisan website of the Minnesota Secretary of State here.
