The timing of Minnesota’s Presidential Primary changes this year to give it more importance on the national scene. The election day voting will be on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, the same day that many states around the nation also cast their presidential preference ballots. Voting on that day will demonstrate relative strength among the many Democratic presidential candidates at that point in time. Results of the Republican primary are expected to be much more predictable.
If you are a dedicated supporter of one of the candidates, you can vote as early as January 17 by absentee ballot. Each county in Minnesota will have its own procedures for the early absentee voting, with numbers of metropolitan counties setting up physical voting locations well prior to March 3. You need to check with your county of residence about the procedures for early voting.
The March 3 results obviously determine the percentages of voters that support each candidate in each party. Each political party then determines the procedures used to select delegates to the party national convention that will decide which of the contenders becomes the party’s presidential candidate. Explanations of those procedures will be available by precinct caucus time.
We already have a general idea of national delegate election procedures. The total number of delegates Minnesota is allotted to each party’s national convention will be divided proportionally among the candidates based on the percent of vote received in the primary. Some national delegates will be elected at the congressional district and some at the state convention. At each convention, delegates who support each candidate will elect the number of individual delegates to the national convention that they have been allocated based on the percent of vote and the party’s procedures.
The most important parts for you to remember—you can vote starting January 17. If you are a dedicated supporter of one candidate, you also want to attend your precinct caucus February 25 to be involved in national delegate selection preliminaries!!