Make a difference and cast your vote

As regular Star Tribune Opinion readers know by now, the Editorial Board has taken positions on dozens of electoral contests and ballot questions during the current election cycle.

We have endorsed candidates and stated our preference on policy issues in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. Anyone who wants to revisit our positions will find them at startribune.com/opinion.

By tradition, we don't advocate for candidates or causes on the last day or two before Election Day. The election is Tuesday. Today we confine our advocacy to this:

Please vote.

Whoever your preferred candidates, however you would like to see your city's policies changed, vote. The stakes, the circumstances and this moment in the life of our cities demand it.

There are momentous decisions to make. How we protect ourselves, how we govern ourselves, how we choose where to live — these questions go to what it means to be a city, what it means to be a community.

Seventeen months ago, events in Minneapolis drew the attention of the world. When George Floyd died under the knee of a police officer, he ushered in a period of racial reckoning and widespread debate about the future of police. We saw how it played out on the streets — in protests and spasms of violent unrest.

How might that reckoning express itself at the polls? This is a chance to find out. And it's a chance for voters — who may have felt helplessly buffeted by events in recent months — to have an impact.

A mind-boggling 24 candidates are running for mayor in one city or the other. In Minneapolis, scores of contenders are on the ballot for 13 seats on the City Council, not to mention those in contention for the Park and Recreation Board and the Board of Estimate and Taxation in Minneapolis, as well as the school board in St. Paul.

Numbers like these mean that the electoral pie is sliced thin — so thin that individual voters can make a significant difference in outcomes. That's especially true with ranked-choice voting, which gives people a chance to influence races their preferred candidates won't win.

No matter who comes out on top, a strong election turnout can contribute to a community's healing. A voter who goes to the polls is a citizen who has invested some effort in their city's future.

A big showing on Election Day is a demonstration that the people who live here care about the policies and people that guide us. Whatever their differences, they agree that the life of the city matters. They have that in common, and it's worth something.

Municipal elections typically generate a lower turnout than midterms or presidential contests. About half as many Minneapolis voters turned out for the 2017 election as for the 2020 presidential election. But consider this: Turnout in that presidential election was higher in Minneapolis than in the state as a whole, even though Minnesota's turnout rate was the highest of all 50 states. Clearly, Minneapolitans can vote in impressive numbers for an election that they think matters.

This election matters.

If you're voting absentee and haven't yet returned your ballot, you have until 3 p.m. Tuesday to do so. If you plan to vote in person, see the secretary of state's handy search tool at pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us. Polling locations can change from year to year, so it's best to check. Most open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

Might you encounter long lines? For a municipal election, probably not — but we can always hope.