The Independent View: Minnesota Makes It Easy to Vote

Minnesota for the last nine Presidential Elections has been No. 1 in Voter turnout, according to statistics compiled by Michael McDonald, a Political Scientist at the University of Florida. In the last three elections, Minnesota was the only State in which more than 76% of eligible voters cast ballots.

It might even be gaining ground. By the beginning of this week, it had already almost exceeded its number of Early votes cast in all of 2012, according to Paul Gronke, a Political Scientist at Reed College in Oregon and Head of the Early Voting Information Center.

So what accounts for the stubborn success of this Midwestern State in getting people to the polls? The answer is complex, including policies that encourage participation, a politics of ideological inclusion, and a relatively well-off population.

Minnesota’s Voting laws have long focused on removing barriers. In 1974 it became just the second State to embrace Same-Day Registration, which remains essential: In 2012, close to one in five voters registered on the day they cast their ballots.

No State has equaled Minnesota’s turnout since 1980, according to available statistics. Nationwide turnout figures are not available prior to 2000 because many states did not collect the necessary data.

Minnesota also has one of the longest Early-Voting periods in the Country. This year, polls opened on Sept. 23, a month and a half before Election Day. And in a new policy, Minnesotans can now vote early even if nothing is stopping them from doing it on Election Day.

Minnesota’s Secretary of State, Steve Simon, said that as of last week, twice as many Early Voters were turning out this year compared to 2012. “We already had 250,000 accepted ballots as of last week, and I attribute that to no-excuse absentee voting,” he said in an interview this week. “That figure is a record.”

In an Election year full of disgust and disenchantment, Minnesota remains a bastion of civic engagement.

Seven in 10 Minnesotans express confidence in their State Government, according to Gallup, putting it near the top. A 2014 study from researchers at Indiana University and the University of Hong Kong showed Minnesota to be one of the least corrupt states.

“We’ve been blessed by largely clean politics,” Mr. Simon said. “And people are pleased with the quality of life in Minnesota. Either it’s the case that they attribute it in part to good government, or that they feel government at least hasn’t gotten in the way of it.”

Although Minnesota has supported the Democratic Presidential nominee for the past 40 years, its State Legislature is divided, and neither Major Party has a consistent hold on the Governor’s mansion. This helps drive engagement.

The State is also particularly welcoming of Third Parties, which can keep people involved in the political process even if they feel unrepresented by Democrats and Republicans. “For people who feel like there’s a pox on both houses, it helps to turn out those who feel left out,” said Paul N. Goren, a Political Science Professor at the University of Minnesota.

The Minnesota Famer-Labor Party was perhaps the most successful statewide Third Party in United States history until it merged with the Democrats in 1944.

Even now, when a Third-Party candidate achieves 5% or more in any Statewide Election, Minnesota statutes dictate that Party receives Major-Party status in the next cycle.

The former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was the best-known beneficiary; he was elected Governor in 1998 as a member of the Reform Party.

The wealthier and better educated the population, the more likely that it will have high voter turnout. So Minnesota is dealing from a position of strength: The State is consistently close to the top in per capita income, and only one State has a lower proportion of residents without a high school diploma.

But Minnesota’s relative wealth and its lack of diversity mask its staggering levels of inequality. The State actually does quite poorly at driving turnout among nonwhites.

Minnesota ranked third from the bottom in terms of African-American turnout in 2014’s Midterm Elections, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the WalletHub website, despite being near the top over all. Turnout was 74% among whites but just 49% for African Americans, and 33% among Hispanics.

Myrna Pérez, Deputy Director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, said the State could take a number of steps to increase voter turnout among minorities and other low-propensity voters. One is to introduce so-called Automatic Registration, which is already policy in a handful of states.

“In Oregon it’s been found to increase the registration rate by nearly four times,” Ms. Pérez said.

Additionally, Minnesota does not allow citizens to vote when they are on probation or parole. Changing that policy would restore Voting Rights to approximately 47,000 people in Minnesota, Ms. Pérez said, an outsize number who are poor or nonwhite.