LAKEVILLE, Minn. — Leading up to Election Day, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said he’s hopeful for two things: high voter turnout and low drama. Speaking from a polling place in Lakeville Tuesday morning, Simon said that’s exactly what he’s seeing at polling locations across the state.

When polls opened at 7 a.m. on Election Day, Simon said more than 1.2 Minnesotans had already voted absentee and by mail.

“It’s a good day to be a Minnesotan,” he said. “We were number one in America for three out of the last four elections including the last presidential election, and we want to get back to number one, back to that top spot, today.”

As of Tuesday morning, the Secretary of State’s office said about 128,000 absentee ballots had not yet been returned. Simon urged anyone who has not returned their absentee ballot to deliver it in person or have someone they trust to deliver it on their behalf.

Dakota County Director of Elections Michelle Blue said roughly 40% of voters in the county voted early. 

Still, the line to vote at the Lakeville Water Treatment Facility was constant and steady Tuesday morning. Despite a soggy start to Election Day, many people stepped outside to cast their ballots — some for the very first time.

“This is my first time voting, so it’s really exciting,” St. Olaf College student Rylan Nakamura said. “We have a polling place at St. Olaf College, so it made it really accessible and easy, and it was really exciting.”

St. Olaf is a campus well-known for encouraging civic engagement. On Oct. 28, the Secretary of State recognized the school for having the highest voter turnout of any college in Minnesota during the previous election.

Simon reiterated that Minnesota’s election results should be readily available by Wednesday morning. However, that is likely not the case for several other states. 

“It’s no surprise that in those battleground states, they will be counting into tomorrow and the next day and maybe the next day,” Simon said. “It’s not a sign that someone did anything wrong. It’s not a sign that there’s any unlawful activity. It’s a sign that they’re following their state laws, and I just want to condition everyone and talk about that in terms of expectations.”

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MINNESOTA, USA — Election integrity is crucial to a fair and balanced election, and work to ensure that can take months. While that may be, there is always the risk of something happening – though some experts say there will be little issues because of it.

“I think there’s astronomically low risk of a cyber attack compromising the U.S. election system today,” Karl Mattson, Chief Information Security Officer for Endor Labs, said.

Mattson said the reason for that is simple.

“Those networks are really offline, and so they really are extremely difficult to attack at this point,” he said. “And so the compromising the integrity of an ongoing election at this point is an astronomically low probability event.”

Despite that, Mattson said the thought of issues with the system can pose risks, and could shake faith in the integrity of the election system.

“There is definitely risk, that is true, will persist today and after the election, because the confidence that the election has integrity matters just as much as the reality of the elections integrity itself,” Mattson said.

While risks of a cyber attack are low, Mattson said there are other concerns, including misinformation.

“If you feel like engaging with a candidate that you support at the last minute, go to their website and donate, or go to the nonprofit and donate,” he said. “Responding to a text message is just as likely to be participating in a fraud event or a fraud campaign as it is to supporting a candidate.”

“The second thing is what we see in this sort of 24, 48 hour window of the election, are these things like fake generated content, and so we ought to be cautious about overreacting,” Mattson continued. “So if we see on one social media channel content that makes us enraged or wants us to react strongly, the first thing we have to do is look… is that content anywhere else?”

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DALLAS — A pair of ruby slippers worn by Minnesota native Judy Garland in “The Wizard of Oz” are on the auction block nearly two decades after a thief stole the iconic shoes, somehow convinced they were adorned with real jewels.

Heritage Auctions in Dallas announced in a news release that online bidding has started and will continue through Dec. 7. 

The auction company received the sequin-and-bead-bedazzled slippers from Michael Shaw, the memorabilia collector who originally owned the footwear at the heart of the beloved 1939 musical. 

Shaw had loaned the shoes in 2005 to the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, but that summer, someone smashed through a display case and stole the slippers. Their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.

Now the Garland Museum is among those vying for the slippers, which were one of several pairs Garland wore during the filming. Only four pairs remain.

Grand Rapids raised money for the slippers at its annual Judy Garland festival, and will combine those funds with $100,000 set aside this year by the Minnesota Legislature to purchase the slippers.

The man who stole the slippers back in 2005, Terry Jon Martin, was sentenced in January to time served because of his poor health. Martin, now 76, admitted to using a hammer to smash the glass of the museum’s door and display case in what his attorney said was an attempt to pull off “one last score” after an old associate with connections to the mob told him the shoes had to be adorned with real jewels to justify their $1 million insured value.

The current auction of movie memorabilia includes other items from “The Wizard of Oz,” including a hat worn by Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch of the West and the screen door from Dorothy’s Kansas home.