Minnesota Secretary Of State - 2018 Election Statistics
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2018 Election Statistics


On the Ballot

  • U.S. Senator: 2
  • U.S. Representative: 8
  • State Senator: 1
  • State Representative: 134
  • Governor & Lieutenant Governor: 1
  • Secretary of State: 1
  • State Auditor: 1
  • Attorney General: 1
  • Supreme Court Chief Justice: 1
  • Supreme Court Associate Justices: 3
  • Court of Appeals Judges: 6
  • District Court Judges: 87
  • County Races: 503
  • City Races: 1,875
  • Township Races: 1,608
  • School Board Races: 342
  • Hospital District Races: 106
  • Soil & Water Conservation District Races: 196
  • Park District Races: 2
  • City Questions: 54
  • Township Questions: 31
  • School District Questions: 87

View text of all ballot questions

  • Congressional Districts: 8
  • State Senate Districts: 67
  • State Legislative Districts: 134
  • Counties: 87
  • Cities: 853
  • Townships: 1,781
  • Counties with Unorganized Territory: 16
  • School Districts: 330
  • Hospital Districts: 17
  • Soil & Water Conservation Districts: 88
  • Park Districts: 2

Candidate Filing

Filed Candidates for Partisan Offices:

  • Republican: 172
  • Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL): 205
  • Other: 17

Candidates for Judicial Offices:

  • Incumbent only: 89
  • Candidates with challengers: 7
  • Open seat: 1

Registered Write-ins: 37

Filed Candidates for:

  • County Offices: 806
  • City Races: 3,613
  • Township Races: 1,571
  • School Board Offices: 1,418
  • Hospital District Offices: 97
  • Soil & Water Conservation Offices: 215
  • Park Offices: 3

Races with no candidate filed:

  • County Offices: 0
  • City Races: 92
  • Township Races: 146
  • School Board Offices: 2
  • Hospital District Offices: 14
  • Soil & Water Conservation Offices: 7
  • Park Offices: 0

Voter Registration

Minnesota voters may pre-register up to three weeks before Election Day. Total voters who pre-registered before the general election was 3,315,627. In the map image below, counties with darker shades had a higher percentage of eligible voters pre-registered. County percentages ranged from 66% to 90%. Click on the image to view a pdf with rates for each county.

Pre-registration by county. Counties with darker shades had a higher percentage of voters pre-registered
10 Precincts with most pre-registered voters
Precinct County Registered at 7 am Election Day
Monticello Wright 7112
Saint Michael P-1B Wright 6046
Otsego P-1A Wright 5366
Wyoming Chisago 5110
Rogers P-2 Hennepin 4693
Chaska W-2 Carver 4560
Saint Michael P-1A Wright 4418
Woodbury P-9A Washington 4320
Waconia W-2 Carver 4306
Champlin W-1 P-1 Hennepin 4278

 Find pre-registered data for all precincts in the 2018 Precinct Results Spreadsheet

Minnesota voters may register when they vote. 213,999 voters registered when they voted in the general election. Note that these might be new voters, or voters re-registering after changing their name or address. In the map image below, counties with darker shades had a higher percentage of voters that registered when voting. County percentages ranged from 3.1% to 12.5%. Click on the image to view a pdf with rates for each county.

Election day registration by county. Counties with darker shades had a higher percentage of voters register when they voted
10 Precincts with Most Election Day Registrations
Precinct County Election Day Registrations
Minneapolis W-3 P-1 Hennepin 1259
Duluth P-10 St. Louis 968
Saint Paul W-4 P-6 Ramsey 659
Northfield W-4 P-2 Rice 637
Minneapolis W-10 P-2 Hennepin 635
Minneapolis W-2 P-10 Hennepin 627
Minneapolis W-2 P-4 Hennepin 595
Saint Joseph P-1 Stearns 593
Minneapolis W-3 P-2 hennepin 565
Duluth P-11 St. Louis 543

 Find election day registration data for all precincts in the 2018 Precinct Results Spreadsheet


Voter Turnout

Voter turnout is the number of voters divided by the number of eligible voters. The total number of voters in the 2018 general election was 2,611,365. This office does not have exact eligible voter data, so uses statewide data from the United States Election Project on election night. Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) data from the U.S. Census is less exact, but available by county. In the map image below, counties with darker shades had higher turnout. County percentages ranged from 50% to 76%. Click on the image to view a pdf with rates for each county.

Voter turnout by county. Counties with darker shades had a higher turnout of estimated eligible voters.
10 Precincts with Most Total Votes
Precinct County Total Votes Cast
Monticello Wright 4840
Saint Michael P-1B Wright 4619
Wyoming Chisago 4075
Otsego P-1A Wright 3896
Rogers P-2 Hennepin 3786
Chaska W-2 Carver 3657
Waconia W-2 Carver 3482
Woodbury P-9A Washington 3442
Shoreview P-5 Ramsey 3418
Plymouth W-1 P-2 Hennepin 3306

Find polling place voting data for all precincts in the 2018 Precinct Results Spreadsheet

Most Minnesota voters vote at their polling place on Election Day. In 2018, about 1.97 million voters voted at a polling place. In the map image below, counties with darker shades had a higher percentage of votes cast in polling places. County percentages ranged from 16.6% to 90.7%. Click on the image to view a pdf with rates for each county.

Polling place voting by county. Counties with darker shades had a higher percentage of voting via polling places on election day.
10 Precincts with Most Polling Place Votes
Precinct County Votes Cast in Polling Place
Monticello Wright 3622
Wyoming Chisago 3427
Otsego P-1A Wright 3278
Saint Michael P-1B Wright 3207
Otsego P-2A Wright 2671
Chaska W-2 Carver 2625
Belle Plaine Scott 2510
Saint Michael P-1A Wright 2484
Waconia W-2 Carver 2461
Stewartville Olmsted 2452

 Find polling place voting data for all precincts in the 2018 Precinct Results Spreadsheet

Voters throughout Minnesota may vote early as absentees without excuse, in person or by mail. The total number of accepted absentee ballots was about 561 thousand for the 2018 general election. In the map image below, counties with darker shades had a higher percentage of votes cast by absentee voting. County percentages range from 6.5% to 28.9%. Click on the image to view a pdf with rates for each county.

Absentee voting by county. Counties with darker shades had a larger percent of ballots cast via absentee voting.
10 Precincts with Most Absentee Ballot Votes
Precinct County Absentee Ballot Votes
Rogers P-2 Hennepin 1418
St Michael P-1B Wright 1411
Plymouth W-1 P-2 Hennepin 1396
Wayzata P-1 Hennepin 1278
Plymouth W-2 P-7 Hennepin 1232
Plymouth W-3 P-14 Hennepin 1229
Monticello Wright 1219
Shoreview P-3 Ramsey 1207
Champlin W-1 P-1 Hennepin 1178
Plymouth W-1 P-5 Hennepin 1144

 Find absentee voting data for all precincts in the 2018 Precinct Results Spreadsheet

Some areas in Minnesota are designated to vote by "mail ballot" which means that ballots are mailed to registered voters and voters do not go to a normal polling place on Election Day. About 77 thousand voters voted this way for the 2018 general election. In the map image below, counties with darker shades had a higher percentage of votes cast by mail voting. Eighteen counties had no mail balloting, and other counties had up to 71.4% of voting by mail ballot. Click on the image to view a pdf with rates for each county.

Mail voting by county. Counties with darker shades had a larger percent of ballots cast via mail ballots.
10 Precincts with Most Mail Ballot Votes
Precinct County Mail Ballot Votes
Bass Lake Itasca 619
Sugar Lake Itasca 614
Kasota Twp P-2 Le Sueur 579
Belgrade Twp Nicollet 492
Washington Twp Le Sueur 485
Langola Twp Benton 473
Cottonwood Twp Brown 447
Maple Hill P-8A Cook 389
Munson Twp P-2 Stearns 385
Deer Lake Itasca 369

Find which precincts voted by mail ballot in the 2018 Precinct Results Spreadsheet

Voters throughout Minnesota may vote before election day as absentees without excuse, in person or by mail. Voting absentee in person at a county or city location is sometimes called "early voting." About 340 thousand voters completed their absentee ballots in person before Election Day. In the map image below, counties with darker shades had a higher percentage of votes cast via early voting. County percentages range from 3% to 18.3%. Note that these "early votes" are also counted in the absentee voting counts above. Click on the image to view a pdf with rates for each county.

Early voting by county. Counties with darker shades had a larger percent of total voting cast via in-person absentee voting.
10 Precincts with Most Early Voting
Precinct County Early Votes
St Michael P-1B Wright 1103
Rogers P-2 Hennepin 1061
Forest Lake P-5 Washington 937
Wayzata P-1 Hennepin 930
Shoreview P-3 Ramsey 923
Plymouth W-1 P-2 Hennepin 902
Plymouth W-2 P-7 Hennepin 896
Monticello Wright 895
Plymouth W-3 P-14 Hennepin 864
Shoreview P-5 Ramsey 845

Precincts and Polling Places

  • Precincts: 4,113
  • Mail Ballot Precincts: 938
  • Cities with multiple precincts: 210
  • Towns with multiple precincts: 43
  • Municipalities offering absentee voting: 126
  • Election Judges on Election Day (as reported by counties): 28,702

Some counties have purchased electronic pollbooks to replace paper rosters in some or all of their precincts. Click on the image to view a pdf with more information about voting equipment used in 2018.

ePollbook usage by county. Counties with darkest shade used ePollbooks throughout the county, lighter shade used it in some parts of the county, no shading did not use ePollbooks at all.
  • ePollbooks used in entire county: 16
  • ePollbooks used in part of county: 29
  • ePollbooks not used in county: 42

The table below shows the model of equipment that was used for tabulating votes, including votes from polling places, absentee ballots, and mail ballots. Data as reported by Minnesota counties. Click on the image to view a pdf with more information about voting equipment used in 2018.

Voter tabulation equipment by precinct. Colors represent different models of equipment, see pdf for details.
Vote Tabulation Equipment
Equipment Model Number Used
ES&S Digital Scan 200 1,840
ES&S Model 100 644
Dominion ImageCast Evolution 284
Hart Verity Scan 207
Dominion ImageCast Central 17
ES&S Digital Scan 850 15
ES&S Digital Scan 450 10
Hart Verity Central 4
Hand Count  73