MINNEAPOLIS— The 2024 election will be decided by the Electoral College, and Minnesota’s 10 votes may or may not be part of the path to victory for Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.
Minnesota is not considered a battleground state — two nonpartisan forecasters project Minnesota as likely Democrat, and a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won the state since Richard Nixon in 1972. Even in Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory in 1984, the state gave its 10 votes hometown Democrat Walter Mondale. This year there is another local with the big ticket Gov. Tim Walzthe Democratic vice presidential candidate.
How does Minnesota’s process for awarding Electoral College votes work? Read on for the answer.
How many Electoral College votes has Minnesota had in the last election?
The states’ Electoral College votes correspond equally to those of their congressional delegation, which is based on census data. So each state gets one vote for each member of the U.S. House of Representatives and its two senators.
According to 270toWin, a nonpartisan election site, Minnesota has had ten Electoral College votes since 1964. The state peaked at twelve votes between 1912 and 1928, and only four in the first presidential election in 1860.
Minnesota nearly lost one of its electoral votes after the 2020 census. Minnesota received the last congressional seat allocated, reportedly surpassing New York by fewer than 100 residents. Because the votes in a state’s Electoral College are equal to the number of senators and representatives, losing a congressional seat would also mean losing a vote.
Minnesota also won the last seat in the House of Representatives in 2010, narrowly edging out North Carolina.
How does Minnesota award Electoral College votes?
Minnesota voters are required by law to vote for the presidential candidate who receives the most votes statewide.
In an election law last year Minnesota has passed a provision to allocate its voters based on who gets the most votes nationally, known as the “National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.” Sixteen other states, as well as Washington DC, have joined the pact, but it would only go into effect if enough states join. The benchmark is 270 electoral votes – the number needed to win the presidential election. So far, the total number of electors allocated to the states that have joined is 209.
How are the members of the Minnesota Electoral College chosen after the election?
Every party with a presidential candidate on the ballot is required to submit a list of voters. The state canvassing board will meet Nov. 21 to certify the electors, who will then be notified by the governor on Dec. 11. The electors meet at the State Capitol on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December, which this year is December. On October 17, they will formally cast their electoral votes for president and vice president.
What about January 6?
The rules for the Electoral College date back to 1887 and include Congress’s role in counting votes on January 6. In 2021, however, a riot and real attempts to overturn the election results exposed what critics said was ambiguous and unclear. outdated provisions that can be easily manipulated.
However, in 2022, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act to update some of those protocols. The law was authored by a bipartisan group of senators, including Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar.
“What we did was make sure that the will of the people is respected and leave all this manipulation of the process behind,” Senator Klobuchar explained to WCCO News. “We passed it and updated the old law and made it fairer to enforce the results regardless of who wins.”
The law makes four critical changes, including raising the threshold for objecting to a state’s electoral count from just one member of each chamber to 20% of the House and Senate; making it so that only the governor and not a state legislature can certify electors; streamlining an appeals process in federal courts; and make it clear that the vice president’s role is solely ceremonial.
More information about Minnesota’s presidential election process can be found on the Secretary of State’s website.
