Whoever coined the old adage that rain keeps the voters away, did not account for the 2024 United States Presidential Election. Through the gray and wet voters flocked to polling places, not just in record-breaking numbers for early in-person voting in Hastings, but also in some of the highest numbers recorded for voter participation across the country.
An estimated 76% of Minnesotans—some 3.2 million residents—voted on Nov. 5, according to the unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State. That figure is a high-water mark for voter participation, a full 10 points above the national average for 2020 at 66% which itself was “the highest rate for any national election since 1900,” according to a study from the PEW Research Center.
In Dakota County, an estimated 261,000 voters turned out for the election. Hastings voters broadly reflected national trends in the presidential election with 6,706 votes cast for Trump, roughly 50.6% of the vote, just a hair below the national rate of 50.9%. Despite not choosing her overall, Hastings residents were more favorable to Harris than the national average; 49.3% of Hastings voters chose her, 6,539 votes, over the national average of 47.6%.
Closer to home, Hastings chose Republican Tom Dippel as the new Representative for district 41B over DFLer Jen Fox. Strangely, more Hastings residents voted for Dippel than Trump or Harris, an oddity given the broad trend of high vote counts for races at the top of the ticket versus those below. In Hastings, Dippel received 6,915 votes, 52.2% of the vote to Fox’s 6,333 votes, some 47.8%.
Hastings residents stayed the course with their national representatives, overwhelmingly sending Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Angie Craig back to Washington D.C. over their Republican challengers. For the city council, Ward 2 residents chose Mya Beck over Wendi-Shilts-Johnson to take the seat vacated by Jen Fox. Beck received 1,343 votes to Shilts-Johnson’s 1,135. All other city councilors will be returning to their seats from uncontested races.
Even before the doors opened at Ward 4 Precinct 2 at Crossroad Church, more than 50 people were lined up out front, said Co-head Election Judge Chelesa Piskor. By the noon lull in the stream of voters, Ward 4 Precinct 2 had received nearly 23% of the vote just in in-person voting, with judges estimating that by the end of the day, the total would be twice that. When all the votes were counted, Ward 4, Precinct 2 had a more than 92% voting rate based on voters registered at the beginning of the day with another 186 voters registering on election day.
Election Judge Spencer Johnson at Ward 1 Precinct 1 in City Hall noted this trend for new voters registering on election day, commenting that in all the years he had been an election judge, this year he saw more people signing up to vote than ever before.
Across the city, election judges had nothing but good things to say about the experience of running Hastings’ elections. “It is a good experience. If people have the opportunity to do it, they should do it,” said Co-head Election Judge at Ward 1 Precinct 2 at Hope Lutheran Church, Shannon Kottke.
“If there is any question about the elections and how they are run, you should be part of the process,” said Co-head Election Judge of Ward 3 Precinct 2, Katy Lindberg.
While the election judges and poll workers were confident with the process, voters expressed both pride in fulfilling their civic duty, as well as uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of the election. Voters referenced topics ranging from women’s healthcare to the economy as key issues that brought them to Hastings polls.
Hastings polling places were under the watchful eye of not just election judges and poll workers, but of several partisan challengers, appointed by the Republican party. While election judges and poll worker teams must be comprised of members of two or more political parties—though they are often populated by many more—political parties can appoint partisan challengers to watch for specific voters of whom challengers have personal knowledge. Largely, that was not the case in Hasting polling locations.
Minnesota does not allow poll watchers like other states. Instead, the state allows challengers. Minnesota Statute 204C.07 and 204C.12 define a challenger’s sole action as the “only action a challenger may take is to contest a voter’s eligibility, if and only if they have personal knowledge of that voter’s ineligibility.”
According to Director of Dakota County Elections Michelle Blue the role of challengers is clear: “They have a very specific role in the statute where their only role is to challenge a specific voter if they have personal knowledge of that voter.”
Sylvia Stepaniak, a Republican-appointed challenger from Woodbury, was at Ward 3 Precinct 1 at Calvary Christian Church. Stepaniak spoke to the hour-long Zoom training she received from the Republican Party beforehand in order to look for machines breaking down or ballots not being counted: “just to make sure everything is running smoothly.”
In the end, Stepaniak had no complaints: “They did wonderful here. They did a great job.”
Other poll challengers were not so content. Diana Wutke, another Republican-appointed challenger arrived at 6:30 a.m. to United Methodist Church in order to watch voters for a potential challenge. Wutke was asked to leave due to lacking specific, personal information towards a challenge to an individual voter in the precinct, but was eventually allowed to return.
“They had the documentation that allowed them to be there,” said Assistant City Administrator Kelly Murtaugh, addressing the gap between the law as written and the placement of challengers within Hastings polling locations.
Both Stepaniak and Wutke were first-time appointed poll challengers, motivated by doubts of election integrity. “I just want things to be fair,” said Wutke.
“The only role for that person in the polling place is to challenge someone because of personal knowledge,” said Communications Director from the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State Peter Bartz, continuing, “the role of the challenger is not to be a poll watcher.”
Despite that, “they are permitted to be there if they are following the rules.” Said Bartz.
This general overview of polling places by challengers rather than personal knowledge of a specific individual is “not the rule in the law […] but as long as they were following the rules we are happy that they are there,” said Blue.
“It think it would benefit from more clarity,” said Murtaugh, referencing the statute.
The Minnesota Republican Party did not respond to calls for comment.
At Tom Dippel’s watch party, family, friends, campaign staff and door knockers from Make Liberty Win, a political action committee backing the candidate, ate off American flag plates as the election data came in, playing from a projector on the ceiling.
Dippel was optimistic about the race: “issues are just completely different from two years ago,” he said, referencing his previous run for Minnesota’s legislature when he ran for Minnesota State Senate District 41 in 2022.
“We did all we could so we can go to bed happy,” said Beck who was also at the watch party.
In Hastings, Jen Fox’s watch party played out at Spiral Brewery, with blue-clad supporters watching the big screen as results continued to stream in long after the brewery’s open sign had been turned off.
Election day saw the nervous checking of phones, television and radio for any sign of an edge even as polls remained open across the county. Unlike the protracted race of 2020, however, by morning, Trump would come to have dominated the race, taking the Southern swing states of Georgia and North Carolina, as well as each of the blue wall states, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, cementing his victorious return to the White House.
In the wake of the election, the notable absence of political ads and lawn signs and door knockers, the work of auditing, counting and recounting votes is far from over.
“We have an abundance of work after the election,” said Blue.
On Tuesday, Nov. 12, the Dakota County Canvassing Board will review and certify the results of the State General Election, and on Thursday, Nov. 14, Dakota County will begin its Post Election Review. This work, already started at the precinct level, will trickle up from cities to counties to states and will end at the vote certification by congress with the deadline of Jan. 6, 2025. That national certification process will bristle with increased security, deemed by the Department of Homeland Security as a “national special security event,” in the wake of the riot four years before.
The 2024 election will go down in history as the 59th presidential election in the United States. Those nearly 60 elections are a feat of Democracy in line with much of the rest of the world but notable all the same.
Elections are a signifier that actions matter. Elections tell us that we have agency, that we have choice. So often the news can feel far away, or intangible and immutable. Voting is a definite way for citizens to shape the world around them. It is a privilege and an honor to cast a vote and so many who were asked what brought them out to the polls answered simply that it was their civic duty. That responsibility is one that shouldn’t be taken for granted nor deemed meaningless. Voting is the floor not the ceiling to civic engagement and one’s vote should be viewed as the springboard to working towards the change sought in casting it. Because we can make that change.
For more information about the 2024 election, visit the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website at https://sos.state.mn.us/
