By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
On Friday, Rice County’s Canvas Board met to certify the 2024 election results. The board consists of two county commissioners, the Mayor of the largest city in the county (Faribault), representatives from the county court system, and the county Director of Elections, Denise Anderson.
As part of the certification process, Anderson delivered a report to the board about the election operations, which she described as “one of the better elections, and it went very smoothly.” Overall, the office saw few changes in equipment or the process of counting votes, but there was a significant increase in the amount of early voting hours offered. Anderson noted that the weekends before the election, the office was open to provide early voting opportunities, and because of that, staff had worked 13 days straight at one point.
Turnout in Rice County for the 2024 Election was 89.9%, down from 90.6% in 2020. Of those votes, 67% were cast on Election Day, and 33% voted early. One of the new early voting options was the “pop-up polling place” on the Carleton Colleges campus for one day in mid-October. The “pop-up polling place” allowed anyone in Rice County to vote early but also allowed students who do not have a polling place on campus to vote. Voting early in person was also popular, with 2,900 votes at Northfield City Hall and 3,000 at the Rice County Government Service Building being cast. Anderson noted that many people told her they were voting early because of fears about what could happen on Election Day and also the convenience of early voting.
At the meeting, the board randomly selected two precincts to fully and publicly audit the results, which will take place on November 18th. The two precincts are Morristown and Wheeling Township. After each county certifies its election results, the State Canvassing Board will meet on November 21st at 2:00 p.m. at the Minnesota Judicial Center to certify all the state results.
Anderson thanked the many people who completed the election process, including the 409 election judges in the county and the City and Town Clerks and staff.
