Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said there has been a record-breaking turnout of early voters for the Minnesota 2026 primary election. As of the morning of Monday, August 10th, they announced 206,196 Minnesotans voted early, and over 200,000 ballots were still outstanding. Experts say that the amount of voter turnout has a huge impact on primary elections. “As an organization, we’ve invested millions of dollars the past couple of cycles in select states getting out the message, urging people to early vote and utilize absentee ballot voting. “I think that’s indicative of what we see in the early vote in this primary.