Voters cast their ballots at Webster Town Hall in Webster, Minnesota during the primary election Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
ST. PAUL (Minnesota Reformer) – Over 1.1 million Minnesotans voted in Tuesday’s primary election, or a quarter of eligible voters, setting the record for most votes cast in a primary, Secretary of State Steve Simon announced Wednesday.
Primary election participation is lower than November general elections, where Minnesota has sometimes reached turnout as high as 80% in presidential years and 60% in non-presidential years.
Tuesday’s record-breaking turnout was likely driven by competitive races for Minnesota governor on the Republican side and the U.S. Senate on the Democratic-Farmer-Labor side.
President Donald Trump’s first midterm election also drew a heavy turnout. In both 2018 and this year, voters in the Democratic primaries drove the big numbers.
“Minnesotans value democracy and they’ve proved it once again by showing up to vote in record numbers,” Simon said in a statement. “My call to Minnesotans now is to make their plan to vote on Nov. 3 so we can once again lead the nation in voter turnout.”
Minnesota’s last primary voter turnout record high was in 2018, with 925,554 ballots cast, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
In 2024, just 543,982 ballots were cast in the primary — about a 13% turnout. In recent years, voter turnout in primary elections has varied from 7% in 2016 to 24% in 2018.
Minnesotans in 1966 set a record-high turnout with nearly 40% of eligible voters casting a ballot in the primary, according to Secretary of State records.
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