Star Tribune
Minneapolis has 11 pop-up early voting sites. Here’s how to find them.
You’ve probably heard of pop-up stores — in which a retail store temporarily pops up in a high-traffic area to test a market or product. Minnesota is jumping on that concept to attract people to vote, rather than buy tennis shoes or yoga pants, at pop-up voting sites.
State lawmakers last year passed legislation allowing cities and counties to set up temporary voting sites where people can vote during different hours and days than already offered at permanent sites. It was part of a wider effort by Democrats to make voting easier, by passing laws allowing things like automatic voter registration, restoration of felons’ voting rights upon release and a permanent absentee voter list.
A dozen Minnesota communities from McGregor to St. Louis Park are offering pop-up polling places this year, according to a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office. Minneapolis’ Elections and Voter Services first did a pilot pop-up last year and this year will hold 11 one-day pop-up voting events at churches, parks and a museum. Each site is open for voting for just one day between Tuesday and Nov. 1. Find locations here.
The first pop-up was at the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and attracted a long line of voters. City spokesman Allen Henry said 637 voters voted at the art museum Tuesday, which he said was a “new record for pop-up voting not just for the city, but the entire state of Minnesota.”
The city’s elections administrator, City Clerk Casey Carl, recently told Minneapolis City Council members the pop-up sites are part of a larger election investment that will “enable the city to fulfill our pledge to take the ballot to the people in more ways, building on the team’s strong reputation for voter service, ballot access and excellence in election administration.”
The pop-up sites were chosen based on geography, turnout, voting age population, underserved communities, need and access, Henry said. Elections staff looked at pockets of low-turnout areas that they wanted to increase access to and also targeted high turnout areas with the potential for, or history of, long lines on Election Day.
On Wednesday, the city held a pop-up at Catholic Charities Higher Ground Minneapolis, which has an emergency shelter and three apartment facilities serving over 400 people who are experiencing or have experienced homelessness.
Lorna Schmidt, vice president of public policy and government affairs for Catholic Charities Twin Cities, said there was a steady stream of voters all morning, with residents and shelter guests excited to be able to vote on site, and others from the neighborhood voting early, too.
Star Tribune
Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is slowly opening up about her childhood past amid domestic violence
She realized that violence in the home wasn’t normal when she finally left for college and sensed that other kids didn’t grow up that way. “Most people don’t call home to see if I should come home after school, or if I should go to my best friend Lauren’s house,” she said.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan observed artwork hanging at Cornerstone, an advocacy center for victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual violence. The tour of the Minneapolis facility was led by Colleen Schmitt, director of emergency services. (Renée Jones Schneider)
Flanagan has often connected with Minnesotans by sharing tales about her personal life, such as when she recounts what it was like to grow up with a single mom in St. Louis Park who relied on public assistance. And yet for many years, she said, she didn’t feel comfortable talking openly about her family’s history with domestic abuse.
That changed when she got a nudge from an unlikely source. Flanagan, as she tells it, was in Washington, D.C., in 2009 as part of her work with the progressive training group Wellstone Action. Then-Vice President Joe Biden was receiving an award from the Sheila Wellstone Institute for his advocacy of domestic violence victims. Before the official ceremony, Flanagan felt compelled to share with Biden about the abuse she observed as a child.
“I just start weeping, and the vice president stood up and gave me a hug. I literally cried into his chest,” she recalled. “And he said, ‘If you can tell the vice president that story, I bet you can tell other people that story.’ ”
And so she has, gradually.
The advocates at Cornerstone, including executive director Artika Roller, who has spent more than two decades helping abuse victims, heard Flanagan speak about it at a rally for action among advocates and survivors.
Another closure of I-494 in the south metro will put thousands of motorists on detour this weekend.
The eastbound lanes of the freeway will be shut down between Hwy. 100 and Cedar Avenue/Hwy. 77 and westbound lanes between Cedar Avenue/Hwy. 77 and Interstate 35W from 10 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday, the Minnesota Department of Transportation said.
Some ramps leading to I-494 will start closing at 8 p.m. Friday. Motorists will be directed to use Crosstown Hwy. 62 to get around the closure, the agency said.
American Boulevard, which runs parallel to I-494, will be closed starting Monday through Nov. 11 between Hwy. 100 and France Avenue in Bloomington.
American Blvd. is closed to through traffic in both directions between Hwy 100 and France Ave
The closures are related to construction in which MnDOT is adding an EZ Pass lane on I-494 between I-35W and Hwy. 100, rebuilding the I-35W/I-494 interchange and replacing bridges over I-494 at Portland, Nicollet and 12th avenues.
In the west metro, westbound Hwy. 55 remains closed through Nov. 1 between Hwy. 169 and Interstate 494. Motorists can use I-394 as a detour MnDOT said.
Star Tribune
In northern Minnesota, DFL tries to win back long-held House seat it lost last election
Retired judge, Democrat Mark Munger, challenges Republican Natalie Zeleznikar.
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