Rain no deterrent for NU voters
2026 midterm election turnout high
An American flag blows in the wind and rain outside Christ the King Church, which served as New Ulm’s Ward 3 polling location, Tuesday night. Though it rained all Election Day, the weather did not seem to deter area voters. Photo by Clay Schuldt
New Ulm’s Ward 3 polling location saw a steady stream of voters on Election Day. Photo by Clay Schuldt
New Ulm’s Ward 3 Election Judge Roger Kockziem points voters to the correct precinct Tuesday. Kockziem said the polling location was average 100 voters an hour. Photo by Clay Schuldt
Election Day voters walk into New Ulm’s Ward 1 polling site at Redeemer Lutheran Church. Photo by Clay Schuldt
An American flag blows in the wind and rain outside Christ the King Church, which served as New Ulm’s Ward 3 polling location, Tuesday night. Though it rained all Election Day, the weather did not seem to deter area voters. Photo by Clay Schuldt
New Ulm’s Ward 3 polling location saw a steady stream of voters on Election Day. Photo by Clay Schuldt
New Ulm’s Ward 3 Election Judge Roger Kockziem points voters to the correct precinct Tuesday. Kockziem said the polling location was average 100 voters an hour. Photo by Clay Schuldt
Election Day voters walk into New Ulm’s Ward 1 polling site at Redeemer Lutheran Church. Photo by Clay Schuldt
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NEW ULM - It was a rainy Election Day Tuesday, but the weather did not deter voters in New Ulm.
Each of New Ulm's four polling sites reported high voter turnout, with many people waiting outside before the polls opened at 7 a.m.
By 10 a.m. over 300 Ward 1 voters had cast a ballot at the polling location in Redeemers Lutheran Church.
Ward 1 Election Judge Maggie Schwab said from the start of the day it was non-stop voters.
Head Judge Leona Houldson said it was a steady stream of voters throughout the morning, which she anticipated would continue until polls closed.
"I expect a high voter turnout," Houldson said. "We usually do have a high voter turnout and there were a lot of early voters this year."
As of Monday, 1,270 Brown County residents voted early. Out of 4,100 mail-in and absentee ballots, roughly 2,500 have been returned.
All of New Ulm's polling places reported similar numbers, averaging 100 voters per hour. At 10:40 am, over 320 people had cast their ballots at New Ulm’s Ward 2 polling location at the Community Center.
New Ulm’s Ward 3 polling location in Christ the King Church had 477 voters by 11 a.m. Ward 4 in Our Savior's Lutheran Church had 500 voters as of noon.
Longtime Ward 2 election judge Perry Bock said this was one of the higher volume turnouts he had seen for an election. He said the morning traffic was consistent and there were times voters had to wait for an open booth.
New Ulm election judges did not report any major issues. The processes went fairly smooth. Ward 2 Assistant Head Judge Dan Bauer said they did have a few new voters register to vote, but it was mostly for changes of address.
Asked if he though the rain would impact turnout, Bauer said Minnesota voters were used to voting during worse weather. He said even with the rain it was relatively warm outside.
Ward 2 would reach 912 voters by 4:30 p.m.
Ward 4 saw some of the most consistent turnout. Head Judge Bill Furth confirmed they were averaging 100 voters each hour.
"It's been going very well here today," he said. As of this morning, we have 2,280 registered voters in this ward. Typically, we see at least 70% voter turnout."
This election was unique for New Ulm's Ward 4. The City Council seat for the ward was up for election; however, no candidates filed to be on the ballot. This means the Council race will be determined by write-in vote.
"I just hope everyone remembers to darken the circle next to the write-in name," Furth said.
He explained that it is not enough to write-in a candidate's name in the space provided, the voters must fill out the oval next to the name for the vote to count.
The election judges were reminding the voters of this requirement when they were giving the ballots.
The high voter turnout is not unique to New Ulm. Minnesota's Office of the Secretary of State reported record high absentee and mail ballots for a non-presidential election year.
As of 7 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3, election officials in Minnesota had accepted 983,558 absentee and mail ballots for the midterm election. Of the accepted ballots, 283,743 were returned by mail and 699,815 ballots were cast in-person.
As of The Journal's print deadline, the polls for the midterm elections had not yet closed. Unofficial election results were posted on the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State's website.
The Journal will provide full election results in Thursday's print edition.