Last Friday was the first day voters in Minneapolis could cast absentee ballots for the Aug. 14 primary election — and a record number of people chose to do so.
A total of 418 voters cast their ballots at City Hall on June 27 — a 177 percent increase from the previous first-day record for absentee voting, in 2013. By way of comparison, the first-day total for absentee voting in 2012, a presidential election year, was 15 voters.
An additional 30 absentee ballots were cast at the Hennepin County voting site, for a total of 447 ballots cast. The city also mailed more than 600 absentee ballots to voters requesting their ballots by mail.
The primary election ballot includes selections for federal, state, county, school board and judicial offices.
