Pursuant to a court order, absentee ballots that have been postmarked by election and received by a county within seven days of the election, will be accepted and counted.* On election day and on the weekdays following, the Office of Secretary of State will provide updated information on the absentee ballots that are still outstanding at the end of each day.
The outstanding absentee and mail ballot report includes the total number of absentee and mail ballots issued, but not returned. This report does not reflect voters who may have requested an absentee ballot but then chose to vote in person on Election Day.
Note: Counties are not required to count an absentee ballot on the day it is accepted, but they will make every effort to ensure that the vote totals for all absentee ballots processed each day are included in the results. Depending on volume, some absentee ballot votes may be included in the following day’s vote totals.
The Excel file below includes total requests and accepted ballots, as well as the difference between them, broken down by county, congressional district, state senate district, and state legislative district.
*The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals required that absentee and mail ballots arriving after 8 p.m. on election day must be segregated. However, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals did not order that the ballots be rejected. Pending further litigation, these ballots will be included in the 2020 election results.