In Brief Getting it right

Election equipment proves accurate

Dakota County voters can rest assured their vote got counted. In the Nov.8, 2022 general election, 201,623 Dakota County residents voted. That’s a registered-voter turnout of 71 percent — much higher than the statewide turnout of 61 percent. More than 145,000 voters cast their ballot in person on Election Day. The rest voted early or by absentee.

Election work doesn’t end after votes are cast and counted. The county, which is responsible for election administration, completes multiple steps in the weeks after the election to make sure everything adds up correctly.

The five-member Dakota County Canvassing Board meets after the election to certify the county’s vote totals. Those totals are provided to the state canvassing board, which certifies all of Minnesota’s election results.

Our work to ensure an accurate election doesn’t stop there. Counties

In Brief are required to complete a postelection review — a hand count of ballots from randomly selected precincts to ensure the electronic counters accurately tabulated vote totals on election night. This review strengthens confidence in our election system.

We completed our post-election review in late November. The review was open to the public, and it was conducted by election judges balanced by political party. Election staff oversee and support the review.

It doesn’t end there, however. The state canvassing board then randomly selects four precincts from each congressional district to review in detail. In 2022, one Dakota County precinct was chosen for that review. Our entire process is reviewed — from pre-election training practices to votecounting and reporting. State election officials will meet with local election staff to go over the findings this spring. This final step helps make sure we’re following the correct process.

Election judges hand-counted 7,243 ballots from five Dakota County precincts that were randomly selected by members of the public who attended the county canvassing board meeting. They counted votes for the office of U.S. representative and the governor’s race. The county’s canvassing board took the extra step of directing the election judges to also count votes in the county attorney race — just to provide another test of our ballot-counting equipment.

The equipment was proven accurate. The hand count showed that the voting system accurately counted all 7,243 ballots. The equipment is so sensitive that it flagged a stray mark on a ballot, and election judges agreed it was not intended to be a marked vote.

Three races hand-counted on 7,243 ballots — that’s as many as 21,000 individual votes — and not one counting error was found.

Making sure our election system is secure, accurate and transparent involves work well ahead of the election. In partnership with our cities and townships, we trained 2,500 election judges and temporary staff who handled early voting duties and worked in polling places on Election Day.

The Dakota County Newsletter last fall explained how residents can register to vote and cast their ballot. We also increased our use of social media to share election facts and voting details for the statewide primary and general elections.

Voters need to know essential election information before they cast their ballot. We provide voting details on our website, and last fall, we did even more to share information. We sent election dates and details by email to residents who signed up to receive them. To sign up for future election information, go to www.dakotacounty.us and search e-news.

Also, all registered voters received a mailing from the county before the statewide primary election that included their precinct and polling place information. That was important because some precincts and polling places changed following the redistricting process last spring.

Just like any other county service, we’re always looking for ways to improve the election process. We know residents not only want the vote count to be accurate, but they want to see results as soon as possible on election night.

Even as we continue to improve our work, Dakota County voters can be confident in the accuracy of our elections.