| Jackson Forderer for MPR News
Oct. 29, 2020 Court: Late Minnesota absentee ballots must be separated | |
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Good morning. Partly cloudy throughout the state. The high temperature may reach 40 in the Twin Cities, but in the 30s throughout most of Minnesota. Good news for next week's weather, though! We might be seeing a string of days with temperatures in the 50s and 60s. Check out Updraft for more weather coverage.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that Minnesota's absentee ballots that come in after Election Day should be separated from the rest of the ballots, in case a future order makes those votes invalid.
The ruling doesn't block Minnesota's seven-day extension for counting absentee ballots — but it does order a lower court to issue a ruling that would keep the late arriving ballots separate so they can be “removed from vote totals in the event a final order is entered” that finds them unlawful.
As of last Friday, nearly 2 million Minnesota voters had requested absentee ballots, and more than 500,000 of those ballots remained outstanding.
Haven't voted yet? With the news out of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, Minnesota election officials are strongly advising to vote in person or drop off your absentee ballot in person, rather than mailing in. If your plan is to vote in person before or on election day, here is a how-to guide with all you need to know.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden will be in Minnesota on Friday — the same day as President Donald Trump is slated to hold a rally in the state.
The former vice president announced a drive-in rally in St. Paul Friday afternoon, which would be his second visit to the battleground state this election season.
Trump’s Friday rally in southern Minnesota was originally set to be held at the Rochester International Airport, but then moved to a private company about a half-hour west in Dodge Center, Minn., McNeilus Steel. By late afternoon Thursday, however, that plan was off the table, and the campaign returned to their original plan back at the Rochester airport.
The president has held large rallies recently in Duluth and Bemidji, despite Minnesota’s gathering limit of 250 people aimed at tamping down the spread of the coronavirus.
And Minnesota health officials are sending out the message that the COVID-19 spread is going to get worse. Hospitalizations, caseloads and deaths rose steeply in October and seem poised to spill into November.
With the state this week averaging more than 2,000 newly confirmed cases daily, Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm braced Minnesotans to expect that to be the new norm. “The way things are going, I’m sorry to say, I don’t think that (daily case) record is going to hold for very long,” she told reporters Thursday.
Here are Minnesota’s current COVID-19 statistics:
2,419 deaths (32 new)142,311 positive cases (2,872 new), 124,379 off isolation2,770,450 tests, 1,819,873 people tested (about 32 percent of all residents)8.7 percent seven-day positive test rate (5 percent or greater is concerning) The federal government Thursday moved to officially end endangered species protection for the gray wolf, a decision that returns management of wolves to states and tribal nations, and paves the way for a potential wolf hunting season in Minnesota.
The announcement has been widely anticipated since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first proposed removing the wolf from the federal endangered species list in the lower 48 states last March.
Wolves are controversial animals: Revered by many as apex predators of the northwoods, they are sacred to northern Minnesota’s Ojibwe bands. But they’re also reviled by some for the fear they can instill, and the damage they’ve inflicted on pets and livestock across their range in northern Minnesota. MPR News reporter Dan Kraker takes a closer look.
~ Matt Mikus, MPR News (@mikusmatt)
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