The Minneapolis early voting center was ready for a crowd. Workers set up stanchions outside in case a queue formed, and a throng of elections staff stood ready to assist.
But the hordes of early voters they saw two years ago did not return this week.
"It's kind of the end of COVID and people don't feel like, 'Oh, I have to do this, I don't know if I'll be sick or if I'll get sick," said Stephanie McCullough-Cain, a chaplain at the VA Medical Center, who dropped off her mail ballot Thursday because she has a party Tuesday, primary day.
Nearly 108,000 Minnesotans statewide had voted in-person or by mail for the primary election as of Friday. Early turnout has plummeted from the record-breaking numbers of the 2020 election, when Minnesotans were avoiding crowds in the first months of the pandemic. It appears likely to end up similar to the last midterm primary in 2018 when about 144,000 absentee ballots were accepted.
Meanwhile, candidates facing off with primary opponents — or competing in the First Congressional District special election — are urging people to vote early or show up at the polls Tuesday.
In the First District, GOP candidate Brad Finstad's campaign spokesman said texts, phone calls and ads are intensifying in the final days. Fifth District U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar is holding a get-out-the-vote rally Saturday with several fellow progressive Democratic congresswomen from the group known as "The Squad." And U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum has four door-knocking events planned this weekend, as her DFL primary challenger Amane Badhasso is also hitting neighborhoods, farmers markets and a county fair.
"It's an all-out push," McCollum's chief of staff Bill Harper said. "But it's August in Minnesota."
It remains to be seen how many voters are paying attention in the middle of summer — particularly when the primary election doesn't have a hotly contested top-of-the-ticket race.