BROWN COUNTY — For only the second time in Minnesota history, a presidential nomination primary will be held separate from the precinct caucuses.

Last Tuesday precinct caucuses were held across Minnesota for the major political parties. Primary voting follows on Tuesday.

The purpose of the presidential nomination primary is for voters in Minnesota to which presidential candidate within their political party would be nominated as the candidate on the November state general election ballot. This nominating primary replaces the straw polls that were conducted at party caucus meetings in the past. 

In Minnesota there are three party ballot options; Republican Party, Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, and Legal Marijuana Now Party. Voter as only allowed to vote the ballot for their affiliated party. No other ballots will be accepted. 

Brown County/Treasurer Kelly Hotovec said if a ballot is received with votes for multiple parties, or the vote does not match party affiliation the ballot is considered spoiled and will not be counted.

Most Brown County polling places will open at 7 a.m. Tuesday for voting. Burnstown, North Star, Bashaw and Leavenworth Townships polls will open at 10 a.m. All county polls close at 8 p.m.

Hotovec said several voting regulations have changed within the last year. Many of the regulations expand the time and options for early voting. 

Though primary voting will end Tuesday, early voting began last month and will continue Monday. Absentee voting began on Jan. 19. Direct balloting at the Brown County Courthouse began Feb. 16.

Hotovec said direct balloting is a different form of absentee voting. With absentee balloting, a voter fills out the absentee ballot and places it in an envelope to be processed and tabulated later. Direct balloting allows a voter to skip the envelope and place the ballot into the tabulator directly. Previously, direct balloting was only allowed seven days before the election, but as of June 2023, Minnesota has extended direct balloting by 18 days. 

Another change was an extended deadline for returning absentee and mail-in ballots. Originally the deadline to return absentee and mail-in ballots was 3 p.m. the day of the election. This has been extended five hours to 8 p.m. on election day.

The Brown County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office will also be open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The office will also expand early voting hours the day before the primary from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday.

During the 2020 PNP election, Brown County received 2,700. As of Thursday, Feb. 29 Brown County has received around 900 absentee and mail-in ballots for the PNP election; roughly a third of the total votes received in 2020.