Northfield Voter Turnout Low; Poll Location Confusion to Blame?

For the third straight day, Northfield experienced a decrease in the number of residents who voted.

On Tuesday, 1,749 residents cast votes in the city's At-Large Council race, which was 39 more votes than the mayoral race. That comes in at 14.2 percent of registered voters voting, which is down from 18.6 percent in 2010 and 24.3 percent in 2008. However, in both those years, Northfield bested the state average.

While party competitiveness and interest in local, statewide and federal races vary election to election, one culprit for Tuesday's turnout could have been confusion where to vote.

Because of this year, precincts, wards and changed for many residents. For example, is no longer a polling location, as Northfield went from nine precincts to eight precincts.

Mary Schier, an election judge for Tuesday's primary for Ward 2, Precinct 1 (), said judges from the precinct sent between 40 and 50 people to the Ward 1, Precinct 2 polling location () because they went to the wrong polling location. (Editor's note: Schier occasionally writes for and blogs on Northfield Patch.)

While Schier said this likely wasn't a huge factor in Tuesday's turnout, she said she and fellow election judges have concerns that if voters show up to the wrong polls for the general election and don't find out until after waiting in line, they may not want to wait in line again at the correct polling location.

Northfield City Councilors in March about moving polling locations, in some cases, outside of the very ward and precincts for which residents were voting.

“I think from the end game of voter confusion … we have a responsibility to come up with a map that would be recognizable to voters and ease the process of voting,” said First Ward Councilor Suzie Nakasian, comparing a proposed map, which ultimately wasn't selected, to the pre-2012 election map. “It gives coherence to the wards.”

Despite the efforts of the city and local media to get the in front of voters, Schier said she believes the confusion likely hurt the turnout.

Northfield City Clerk Deb Little, who was instrumental in creating the new wards, precincts and polling locations, told Patch that other election judges echoed Schier's account of some voters showing up to the wrong location, but said it was consistent with previous elections.

Little said ahead of the primary all registered voters should have received a card with information detailing where their voting location was and said the city will continue to work on getting the word out before the general election.

Northfield Primary Voting History

*Includes those who registered on the day of the primary

While voter confusion in Northfield could have played a hand in the turnout, voter turnout was low across the state. The largest race, the U.S. Senate primaries, had both the endorsed candidates expected to win, which they did. That put the pressure on Congressional or other contested local races.

In Northfield, out for two spots to go to the general election for the At-Large seat, which every Northfield voter can vote in, while four candidates were up for two seats in the Second Ward race. While a mayoral race was on the primary, Nakasian from the race in June and asked residents not to vote for her.

Overall, since 1950, there has been a decline in primary turnout, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State. In 1952, nearly 35 percent of Minnesotas voted in the primary, which was a presidential election year. The highest primary voter turnout for a non-presidential year was in 1966, when nearly 40 percent of Minnesotas turned out to vote. 

Minnesota, however, remains one of the top states for voter turnout in the general election. Some believe turnout may be lower in the past few cycles because the primary moved to August from September.

Looking at the last several primary election cycles in Northfield, 2010 was a strong year—though down from 2008—which had several local races, including the city and county level.

In 2008, Northfield had a great turnout. It was a presidential year full of buzz because of an upstart Barack Obama, a Norm Coleman and Al Franken U.S. Senate race was building momentum and, locally, there were seven candidates gunning for two positions to battle for the mayoral seat on the City Council.

In 2006, there weren't any Northfield races in the primary. In 2004, there were city races and a presidential election, but no statewide races to get people to the polls. 

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