MOORHEAD (KFGO) – Early voting in Minnesota began Friday and Gov. Tim Walz and several local candidates made a stop at the Moorhead Center Mall to encourage people to get out the vote.
Walz called Friday a “high holiday” and a responsibility for citizens to vote.
“This is where we get to do what billions of people around the world could only imagine doing – gathering as free people to discuss how we would like our communities to look, how we have a vision for our children,” Walz said. “We get to decide that. We get to get out and make that happen.”
Walz said wishes the way voting is done in Minnesota was the same across the country. He said he’s talked to governors in other states who don’t even have same-day registration and that many places “make it as difficult as possible.”
“Imagine, our neighbors to the south passed a law that said you can’t hand out water to someone standing in line to vote,” Walz said, referring to the law Georgia’s legislature passed earlier this summer. “It almost seems like you’re trying to not get them to vote. This is the most important right you possess as an American.”
The governor made it a point to thank poll workers.
“They work countless hours,” Walz said. “And they do so with the safest, most secure, fairest, and highest voter turnout elections in the entire country. Minnesota stands at the top in voting. Those are the people who make our democracy work.”
Walz also said an attack on election results is an attack on those poll workers.
“When you attack an election that was free and fair, you’re attacking not only our democracy, you’re attacking our citizens who make our democracy work,” Walz said.
District 4 candidates John Hest, Rob Kupec, and Heather Keeler, Clay County DFL Vice Chairwoman Athena Gracyk, and Concordia student Grace Halvorson also spoke.
Kupec pointed out the importance of voting early because this year’s election is on Nov. 8, the latest possible date for the general election, and there is a better chance of snow. Gracyk is immunocompromised and voting early is good for her because she can do so without the crowds of election day. Halvorson said many students have busy schedules, so finding time to vote on election day can be difficult. Voting early can help.
Walz encouraged voters to do their research and think it over before they make their vote.
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