Know what's on the ballot for 2024
Sample Ballots
The ballot at each of the voting precincts in the City of Rochester is different, with races differing based on address in some elections, and with a different order for candidates appearing on the ballot in many offices.
A sample ballot, or practice ballot, lists all the candidates running for office and any ballot questions, just as the ballot for your precinct will appear when you go to vote. A sample ballot is an excellent resource for preparing to vote. You can bring your sample ballot with you as a reference when you go to vote at either an in-person early absentee voting location or at your polling place on Election Day.
You can view and print a sample ballot on the Minnesota Secretary of State's website starting 45 days before each Election Day.
How can I learn more about the candidates running for an office?
There are many resources available to learn more about specific candidates who may appear on your ballot. When you download your sample ballot through the Office of Secretary of State, you can also access a list of all the candidates appearing on your ballot along with links to their campaign websites, if that information was provided when the candidate filed for office. Visiting these websites can help you learn more about each candidate, including their positions on issues that may be important to you.
Another excellent source of information about different candidates and their views and positions can be different media sources. Local publications and news sites often compile candidate profiles, in addition to writing stories about different races and aspects of the election and candidates.
What are my rights as a voter?
- Take time off work to vote without losing pay and without taking personal leave or vacation time.
- Vote if you are in line on Election Day by 8 p.m.
- Register on Election Day if you can provide the required proof of residence.
- Sign in to vote by orally confirming who you are and asking another person to sign for you if you cannot sign your name.
- Ask for help, including from anyone you choose to bring with you to the polls to assist you, except for an agent of your employer or union, or a candidate.
- Bring your children with you to vote.
- Vote if you are not currently incarcerated for a felony conviction.
- Vote if you are under a guardianship unless a judge has specifically revoked your right to vote.
- Get a replacement ballot if you make a mistake on your ballot before you cast it.
- File a complaint if you are unhappy with the way an election is being run.
- Bring a sample ballot with you into the voting booth.
- Bring a copy of the voter's bill of rights with you into the polling place.
What should I expect when I go to vote?
When you vote in Rochester, you receive a paper ballot to mark your choices by filling in the oval next to each of your selections. After you complete your ballot, you will submit it by personally putting it into the ballot tabulator at your polling place.
Voting Equipment
Ballot Tabulator
You will vote on a paper ballot.
If you are voting on Election Day, or during the direct balloting period in the 7 days before Election Day, you will insert your ballot directly into the ballot tabulator.
The tabulator will notify you as a voter of any possible errors on your ballot.
Assistive Voting Technology
The other voting equipment in every Olmsted County voting location is the OmniBallot. This machine is designed to help with marking the ballot for voters who may need assistance with this but would like to vote independently. The equipment is able to display the ballot in alternate sizes and formats and can also read the ballot to voters using headphones. The machine will mark the ballot with the choices indicated by the voter.
All polling places meet state and federal accessibility standards, including:
- Curb cuts where needed
- Accessible parking spaces, if parking is provided to all voters
- Signage indicating an accessible entrance and route in building
- Accessible voting booths with chair
- Seating available for voters waiting to vote
- Notepads available to communicate in writing
- Magnifier for election material and the ballot
- Sufficient space for voters in wheelchairs
Assistance with voting
If you or anyone voting needs assistance for any reason on Election Day or when casting an in-person absentee ballot, you may:
- Get assistance from a person of your choice, except your employer, an officer or agent of your union, or a candidate for election.
- Get the assistance of two election judges from different major political parties.
- Use the OmniBallot: Each polling place, including in-person voting locations during absentee voting, has at least one voting machine accessible to voters with disabilities, including those with a vision impairment or difficulty using a pen.
- It allows voters who require assistance marking the ballot themselves to vote independently by allowing voters to indicate their choices using a touch screen or headphones in combination with a keypad marked in Braille. You take the ballot after it prints your selections and deposit it into the optical scan ballot counter along with all the other ballots at that voting location.
- Use curbside voting to register and vote without leaving your vehicle. Two election judges who are members of different major political parties will come outside to assist the voter.
The election judges or other individuals who assist a voter may not request, persuade, induce, or attempt to persuade or induce the voter to vote for any particular political party or candidate. An individual assisting a voter may not reveal to anyone the name of any candidate for whom the voter has voted or anything that took place while assisting the voter.
Help from family, friends, or neighbors
You can bring a family member, friend, neighbor or anyone you choose to help you vote. The only exception is that you can't get help from your employer, your union or a candidate for office.
Your assistant can help you in all parts of the voting process, including in the voting booth. However, helpers can only physically mark ballots for up to three voters in an election. You can show your ballot privately to an election judge to check that it is correctly marked.
Like election judges, helpers are not allowed to influence your vote or share how you vote with others.
See Minnesota Statute 204C.15 and the Voter Assistance fact sheet for more information about how you get assistance when voting.
Curbside voting is available
Voters unable to enter a polling place may register and vote without leaving their vehicle. If you or someone you are with at a polling place would like to use curbside voting, notify a volunteer or an election judge.
When you use curbside voting, an election judge will ask for your name as the voter and will look up in the roster to verify whether or not you are already registered and that you have not already voted by absentee ballot. Then, a team of two election judges will:
- take a Certificate of Registered Voter form, along with a Voter Registration Application (if you are not already registered) to your car;
- bring the ballot, clipboard, pen, secrecy folder, and "I Voted" sticker to the car;
- allow you to mark the ballot, and then ask you to wait while they bring your ballot back into the polling place to insert into the ballot counter; and
- return to your car to let you know that your ballot has been accepted.
