Early voting for the 2024 presidential election begins today in Minnesota. Here's what you need to know.

St. Paul, Minnesota – Although the presidential election is only about a month and a half away, Minnesota residents can begin voting as early as Friday.

With Election Day fast approaching, election officials say now is the time to start planning your voting preparations.

You can vote in person at your assigned polling place on Election Day, and you can vote early, either in person or by mail.

If you choose to mail your ballot, it will have a tracking code to ensure that the ballot reaches its destination.

An important note: Postal votes must be received by 8 p.m. on election day to be counted.

This year in particular, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon is urging mail-in ballots to be sent sooner rather than later due to nationwide postal delays.

Simon suggests mailing out mail-in ballots at least a week before Election Day. Despite the delays in delivery, he is somewhat optimistic that everything will go smoothly.

“If we could handle 2020 with this tremendous volume of mail and absentee ballots – and the USPS could handle it – then they can certainly handle the challenges of this year,” Simon said.

Election officials say the integrity of the election is maintained thanks to the following long-standing security measures:

• All ballot papers are issued on paper and must be kept for two years.
• All local election offices conduct public accuracy tests to ensure that voting machines are working.
• On election night, each constituency must ensure that as many ballots have been cast as there are registered voters.
• After the election, all polling stations conduct an audit to ensure that the election was conducted absolutely correctly.

“All of these steps ensure that our elections are free, fair, secure and accurate,” Simon said.

Everything you need to know about voting can be found here.