Minnesota voters took to the polls Tuesday, motivated by a variety of issues in casting their ballots for offices ranging from U.S. president to local school boards.
While the face-off between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is top of mind for most voters, several posts are up for grabs across the state, including congressional offices, state judges and all seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives, among others.
Many voters said Tuesday that the state of the economy, the cost of living and social issues from LGBTQ rights to abortion were key influences in how they cast their votes in the presidential election.
Naima Mohamoud, a Harris voter at the Brian Coyle Center in Minneapolis, said it was her first time voting in a U.S. election. “I’m voting for Kamala because she’s going to be the first woman president, and she is good to the immigrant people.”
“The race is very close, and sometimes I worry if Trump wins what will happen to the people he’s going to deport.”
Perry Sautbine, 66, said prices have gone up on everything from utilities to gas and groceries, prompting him to vote for Trump because he believes the former president can provide some relief.
“I’m struggling, and I’ve never had that problem before,” he said.
Elections officials in Minnesota accepted about 1.2 million absentee ballots as of Tuesday morning, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State. Officials distributed about 1.4 million absentee and mail ballots since early voting began on September 20, the office said.
All absentee and mail ballots must be received by 8 p.m. Tuesday to count; about 128,000 ballots haven’t been returned, the Secretary of State said early Tuesday afternoon.
“Minnesotans are encouraged to return their ballots in-person to their local election office as soon as possible to ensure their vote is counted,” the office said. “It is no longer recommended to return a mail or absentee ballot by mail.”
Voting through ‘rain, sleet or snow’
Jarnesha Woods took a break from work during a chilly, rainy morning to register to vote at the Eden Prairie Library.
During the 2020 race between Trump and Joe Biden, COVID-19 kept Woods from the polls, but this time she said “rain, sleet or snow” wouldn’t keep her away.
“I don’t want things to go back to chaos,” she said.
The economy and its recovery since the pandemic were her biggest concerns.
Woods said some around her have expressed support for Trump due to the belief he was responsible for the stimulus checks. She said she’s been fighting against misinformation like that for weeks now.
“I didn’t want us to go back to COVID ways, times were hard and we’re just now getting back to regular,” she said.
Eden Prairie resident Deepti Patel said voting was a family affair and she’d be doing it at 2 p.m. along with the rest of her family.
She said she was optimistic about the future of the country regardless of the election’s outcome and hasn’t yet experienced election fatigue, but she did have one concern — Trump.
Would jobs actually increase under his economic proposals, she asked.
At a historic moment, divides on display
Sautbine, a retiree, cast his ballot at the Rice Street Library in St. Paul, voting for Trump for the third time. He said the climate around this election and the attacks directed at candidates and their supporters is the worst he’s ever seen.
“It’s absolutely terrible and volatile, and I’ve never heard such hateful words — Hitler, commies, rapists,” he said. “The language is awful, and it really doesn’t need to be that way.”
Michael Binns, a 56-year-old elementary school teacher, said he sees a stark racial divide this election fueled by Trump’s rhetoric, which Binns said harkens back to America in the 1960s, and gives a platform to racist ideas. Binns said Trump, whose platform includes deporting asylum seekers and who spread misinformation about Haitians eating pets in Ohio, is using racism and fear-mongering as his way back to the White House.
“[Trump supporters] are not voting on issues of policy or anything else. They are voting on the issue of race,” Binns said. “Mainly, it comes to a point where you’re asking, ‘Are you going to elect this Black woman? Or are you going to like Trump — this European who basically had his time in office and didn’t do anything he promised he was going to do.’”
Binns voted for Harris. He said he agrees with most of her proposed platform, despite disagreement with some policies, like a potential capital gains tax. Binns described Trump’s platform as incoherent, and said his lack of substantive policy positions and criminal record should disqualify him.
“Basically, are you voting for? A criminal, or are you voting for Kamala Harris, who fights crime? That’s what it boils down to,” he said.
Longtime Democrat turns Republican
Muna Mohamud, a 43-year-old public school employee, has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee since she became eligible to vote 20 years ago. But, she said, she cast her vote at the Brian Coyle Community Center in Minneapolis for Trump, going against how most of her friends and family plan to vote in this election.
Mohamud said she believes Trump is worse than Harris on several issues, including his rhetoric about migrants, but she cited more alignment between her Muslim faith and the Republican Party platform on issues like abortion and gay rights.
“My religion is opposed to abortion and things to do with LGBTQ,” she said in Somali. “With the younger generation of kids, since I work in a school, being taught about LGBTQ issues and abortion, I said to myself, ‘Trump has my vote.’”
Badal Kariye, a writer and entrepreneur, said many of his family members and friends are voting for Harris, but he chose Trump as the next president. Kariye said he recognizes that Trump regularly lies, but he feels Democrats lie as well by promising to improve things for workers and not following through.
“Democrats have been in charge for four years; nothing has changed and workers still aren’t making enough,” Kariye said in Somali.
University of Minnesota student William Hopp, 21, echoed Kariye, saying his vote for Trump Tuesday morning was motivated by the current economic state of the country. As the cost of goods and services rise amid stagnating wages, Hopp said he believes Democratic policies like a child tax credit don’t apply to him as a young, single man, while Trump’s focus on the economy resonates with him.
“I just have more faith in him to better our economy,” Hopp said. “As you know, we’re in a pretty atrocious scenario right now. That was my main topic when focusing on who to vote for.”
Ali Ayanle, however, voted for Harris, remembering the Muslim ban Trump put in place in the early days of his first term in 2017.
“He put a ban on our people, Somali people and other Muslims,” Ayanle, 60, said in Somali. “Now he’s saying he wants to send back people who fled here from war, people who just got their papers.”
Trump’s rhetoric around immigration and his general divisiveness were the main motivators for Ayanle casting his ballot for Harris.
“He’s trying to divide up the American people — we’re here with documentation, we were welcomed here, we’re Americans too,” he said. “Everyone’s the same, we all work together — Christian, Muslim, Black, white, we’re all Americans.”
‘I have daughters’
Social issues, including women’s rights, abortion and LGBTQ representation, drove many voters to the polls Tuesday.
Markeata Gibson, a Harris voter at the Rice Street Library, said she is very optimistic that the American people will make the right choice based on what they already know about Trump.
“I voted for Harris because I have daughters, and I want to make sure I set the example for them and also lead them to a world where they can make their own choices,” Gibson said.
“She’s the better force for me, even if I don’t agree with everything she’s proposing,” Gibson said, adding that she thought Harris would do more on issues such as health care, education, child care and abortion rights.
Voter Tiffany Oyen, a Republican, showed up at the Phillips Community Center in Minneapolis nervous about the outcome. She said her biggest worry is a win by Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
She said Harris has not followed through with the promises she made in the past four years, so she doesn’t think Harris should be in charge of the country.
When asked if she thinks Trump is trustworthy, she replied, “I know all the convictions that the Democrats planned to discredit Trump, but I’m willing to override that because I’d rather have him carry our nation for the next four years than her.”
St. Paul resident Kristen Vann said the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and Trump’s attacks on abortion rights, made her cast her ballot for Harris.
“I believe in women’s rights as far as the abortions he’s trying to ban, and the birth control he’s trying to ban,” she said.
Vann, who is Black, is nervous about the outcome of the presidential race, comparing the moment to former President Barack Obama’s election in 2008. If elected, Harris would be the first female president, and first president of South Asian descent.
Vann said some of her friends are voting for Trump because of financial relief like stimulus checks and Paycheck Protection Program loans that were issued early in the COVID-19 pandemic under his presidency.
“What they don’t know is that everything goes through Congress, even the stimulus checks — that’s nothing that he did by himself,” Vann said. “He just put his signature on it. Everything has to go through the House and the Senate, and I don’t think a lot of people understand that.”
‘Stress all around me’
Wilmer and Josue Chavez stepped out of the Powderhorn Recreation Center with an “I voted” sticker in hand and decided to take a photo for social media.
The two said social media played an important role in getting them out to vote. It was through Instagram, TikTok and Facebook that they began to form their stances on issues in the presidential race.
Both men voted for Harris.
“It’s about protecting women’s health,” Wilmer said.
It was also about performing their civic duties, especially as members of the Latino community, according to Josue.
“It feels like my responsibility towards my community, voting for the people that can’t,” he said.
However, both men agreed they could’ve done more research on races outside of the presidential election.
“The feeling was really heavy inside that room [polling place],” Wilmer said.
According to Josue, there’s a level of exhaustion he’s seen at work and in his personal life related to the election and those feelings won’t go away until the results come out, however long that may take.
“People felt the pressure, there was stress around me,” Josue said. “Yes, I feel stressed.”
