What to expect in Minnesota on Election Day

WASHINGTON (AP) — The two-term Minneapolis mayor who led the city during the killing of George Floyd is seeking re-election Tuesday against more than a dozen challengers, including a Democratic socialist calling for a change to the “status quo.”

Beyond the mayoral race, voters will fill two vacancies in state Senate districts — one previously held by a Democrat who resigned after a burglary conviction, and the other by a Republican who died while in office. Democrats currently have a one-seat majority in the House.

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Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, is one of 15 candidates on the ballot. His best-funded and highest-profile competitor is state Sen. Omar Fatah, who describes himself as a democratic socialist.

Minneapolis implemented ranked-choice voting in 2009, allowing voters to choose up to three candidates in their order of preference on their ballot. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, the weakest-performing candidates will be eliminated — including the candidate with the lowest number of first-choice rankings and those who do not have a mathematical path to victory. The votes of those eliminated candidates are reallocated to the voters’ next selections. This process continues until the candidate receives 50% of the votes.

Frey was the top fundraiser in the race and has the support of a political action committee that funds digital ads critical of Fatah. Frey also has support from Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Fatah has framed his campaign as a fight against the “status quo” and has asked his supporters to rank Dewayne Davis and Jaz Hampton as the other top two options. All three are running as Democrats. Fatah received the support of Representative Ilhan Omar, who represents Minneapolis in Congress.

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Fateh, the son of Somali immigrants, can make his way with the city’s large Somali-American population in neighborhoods like Cedar-Riverside. The Senate district includes the heart of the city’s Somali American community.

Every mayoral race since 2013 has gone to at least a second round of ranked-choice voting. In 2021, Frey won after two rounds of tabulation, in a re-election race that highlighted his leadership after Floyd’s killing. In 2017, when Frey ousted his incumbent, it took six rounds of tabulation. In 2013, it took 34 rounds for Betsy Hodges to be declared the winner of the mayoral race.

State Senate vacancies

The 47th District became vacant after the resignation of its former state senator, Democrat Nicole Mitchell. She was convicted of burglary for breaking into her estranged stepmother’s home in Detroit Lakes.

The Democratic candidate, State Rep. Amanda Hemmensen Geiger, won the nomination with 82% of the vote. The Republican nominee is Dwight Durau, who ran unopposed in the primary. Then-Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris carried the district with about 60% of the vote in 2024, and Mitchell last won with 59% of the vote.

Most of the suburban area is located in Washington County, with a small portion extending south into Ramsey County. In Minnesota, each state Senate district is divided into two state House districts, and Hemmingsen-Jaeger represents half of the 47th District in the state House.

The Hemmingsen-Jaeger’s House district includes parts of Maplewood and Woodbury. She won her seat in 2022, and won re-election in 2024 with about 60% of the vote.

State Sen. Bruce Anderson, a Republican who was first elected to the Legislature in 1994, died in July, triggering a special election. Most of the 29th District is in Wright County, with smaller slices of the district extending into Meeker and Hennepin Counties.

Republican candidate Michael Holmstrom Jr. won the August primary with 73% of the vote. He campaigned as a business owner in Buffalo and has a background in Republican activism, including opposition to abortion. He faces Democratic candidate Louis McNutt, who ran unopposed in the primary. Previous results indicate that the district favors Republicans. Anderson won his most recent reelection campaign with more than 60% of the vote, and Republican Donald Trump won the district in 2024 by about 65%.

Here’s a look at what to expect on Tuesday.

How long are the polls open?

Polls close at eight o’clock in the evening local time, that is, nine o’clock in the evening Eastern time.

What’s on the ballot?

The AP will present the voting results and announce the winners in the Minneapolis mayoral race and in the two states’ special Senate elections. Municipal elections will be held for local offices across the state, such as Minneapolis City Council, St. Paul mayor and Duluth School Board, but those contests will not be included in the AP vote table.

Who is entitled to vote?

Any eligible voter in Minneapolis may participate in the general mayoral election. Eligible voters in state Senate Districts 29 and 47 may participate in special elections in their district.

What does turnout and advance voting look like?

As of June, there were about 253,000 registered voters in Minneapolis. In the 2021 municipal elections, the participation rate was approximately 54% of registered voters. About 20% of the votes in that election were cast before Election Day.

As of October 28, a total of 15,525 votes had been cast in Minneapolis before Election Day.

The state’s 29th and 47th Senate Districts each had about 59,000 registered voters as of June. About 68% of registered voters in the 29th District voted in the 2022 general election, with about 16% of those voters casting early or absentee ballots. In the 47th District, turnout in 2022 was about 69% of registered voters, with about 32% of voters casting early or absentee ballots.

How long does it usually take to count votes?

In the 2024 presidential election, the AP first reported results in Hennepin County at 9:34 p.m. ET, or 34 minutes after polls closed. The Election Night tabulation process ended at 2:59 a.m. ET with more than 99% of the total votes counted.

In the 2022 general election, the AP first reported results in State Senate District 29 at 10:10 PM ET and in District 47 at 10:49 PM ET.

Vote tabulation in the 29th District stopped overnight at 1:22 a.m. ET with about 91% of the total votes counted. In the 47th District, vote tabulation stopped on Election Night at 12:10 a.m. ET with nearly 100% of the votes counted.

Are we there yet?

As of Tuesday, there will be 364 days until the 2026 midterm elections and 1,099 days until the 2028 general election.

Associated Press writer Robert Yuen contributed to this report.

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