Even barely halfway through the day, it was clear this primary election was going to be bigger than in years past.
“We’ve almost reached 10% of the (Waterville) population,” Melinda Scholljegerdes said, at about noon. “Typical (turnout) is about 10% for a primary, so us reaching that now was really good.”
Scholljegerdes is the head election judge in Waterville. That means that it’s her job to make sure everything is running smoothly and that there aren’t any incidents at the polling location.
That turnout in Waterville isn’t unique to them, either. Election judges in Cleveland also say that about 10% of the population had already come out to vote by 1 p.m. on Tuesday, putting them well on pace for a high-turnout election.
That’s the case across the state, with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office announcing on Monday that this primary saw the most pre-election ballots cast in any non-presidential primary in the history of the state, with at least 206,196 ballots already cast across the state by the time polls opened at 7 a.m.
Those numbers are tracking to Blue Earth County as well, which saw 3,706 ballots cast before the day of the primary election, compared to 2,260 in 2024, with a presidential race on the ballot, and 3,330 in 2022.
“We are expecting this August primary election to have more interest and turnout than other primaries because of the fuller ballot for the U.S. Senate and governor contests for both parties,” Michael Stalberger, deputy county administrator, said in a previous article with The Free Press.
As for why voters felt the need to turn out for those races in the primary, many feel it’s their best chance to decide who’s going to be on the ballot come November.
“There was a candidate that I didn’t want to have win that race, that’s why the governor’s race was important to me,” Roger Hines, a Waterville voter, said.
Those aren’t the only races driving turnout, either. In Mankato, a primary election will determine two mayoral candidates for the November ballot between incumbent Mayor Najwa Massad, Julia Hamann and Tobey Leonard. Meanwhile, each of the three Le Sueur County Commissioner seats will need primary elections to narrow the race down to just two candidates prior to the general election.
The Blue Earth County Commissioner District 3 seat will have three names on the ballot — Dave Karge, Ross E. Arneson and Jack Considine — however only two candidates are running, with Considine announcing last month he was dropping out of the race due to family reasons.