Ballot tabulation continues Wednesday for remaining Minneapolis races

Rebecca Omastiak

Election Day Tuesday is spilling over into Wednesday morning as official results continue to roll in.

Election officials have been continuing to tabulate results since 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Here’s a look at where local races stand:

MINNEAPOLIS

[KSTP-TV]

MAYOR: Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has won a second term after two rounds of tabulation.

QUESTION 1 – APPROVED: This ballot question, which would shift the city’s government to a "strong mayor" structure instead of its current setup, passed 52.41% to 47.59%.

QUESTION 2 – REJECTED: This ballot question, which would’ve replaced the Minneapolis Police Department with a Department of Public Safety, failed 43.83% to 56.17%.

QUESTION 3 – APPROVED: This ballot question, which would authorize the Minneapolis City Council to regulate rents on private residential properties, passed 53.21% to 46.79%.

CITY COUNCIL: The results from wards 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 were tabulated Wednesday, as they did not have a candidate with enough first-choice votes as of Tuesday. Unofficial winners were declared in the other wards Tuesday after those individuals met the required threshold of votes in the first round of ranked-choice voting.

Here are the unofficial results for the remaining races, as of Wednesday:

WARD 1: DFL challenger Elliott Payne has been elected.

WARD 2: Democratic Socialist challenger Robin Wonsley Worlobah has been elected.

WARD 3: DFL challenger Michael Rainville has been elected.

WARD 5: Incumbent DFL representative Jeremiah Ellison has been reelected.

WARD 10: DFL candidate Aisha Chughtai has been elected.

What happens Wednesday?

According to the Minneapolis election officials, ranked-choice voting processes ballots through a series of rounds which eliminates the lowest-ranked candidate(s). Those ballots are then redistributed to the next-ranked candidate. Races will be tabulated one at a time, in the following order:

  1. Mayor
  2. City Council wards 2, 5, 10, 1 and 3
  3. Board of Estimate and Taxation
  4. Park and Recreation Board at-large
  5. Park and Recreation Board districts 4, 5, 3, 6 and 2

Meanwhile, as of 7 a.m. Wednesday, the Minneapolis Elections and Voter Services division of the city clerk’s office reported 53.94% of registered voters participated in the local election.

A total of 145,046 ballots were cast, including 115,474 Election Day ballots and 29,572 absentee ballots.

ST. PAUL

MAYOR: With 100% of precincts reporting, incumbent Melvin Carter led first-choice votes with 61.67% of the total. The next-closest candidate, Dino Guerin, had 12.63% of the total.

QUESTION 1 – APPROVED: The ballot question asking voters to directly approve an ordinance to limit rent increases to 3% per year passed. With all precincts reporting, the "yes" votes led 53% to 47%.

Complete local races coverage