Tessera

Because @mprnews.org continues to distribute outdated information about Minnesota's absentee ballot witness requirement, I want to restate the actual requirement. As always, the best advice is to follow the official instructions. The witness can be any U.S. citizen who will be 18 by election day.

Witness section of Minnesota absentee ballot signature envelope (version for registered voters) with highlighted text "I am at least 18 years of age on or before the day of the election and a citizen of the United States, or am a notary, or am authorized to give oaths."

Max Hailperin@maxhailperin.bsky.social · 6d ago

This graph also is a reminder of how vastly different the populations of Minnesota counties are. The X way far away from the others in the upper right is Hennepin. The next two are Ramsey and Dakota. About 10 more are individually visible. That leaves 74 bunched into the fuzzy caterpillar near zero.

The 87 Minnesota counties are showing a reasonably consistent return and acceptance of about 26% of mailed-out ballots, with a week and a half to go. (Estimated assuming mailout equals applications minus accepted in-person.) www.sos.mn.gov/election-adm...

Scatter plot of accepted mailed ballots vs. estimated mailout with linear fit of 0.257*x + -162 with R^2 = 0.987

Reuters@reuters.com · 7d ago

US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference reut.rs/4x9eTCW

Max Hailperin @maxhailperin.bsky.social · 7d ago

I don't see how @nytimes.com can frame this as a threat rather than a concession. Yes, Trump is "dealing a blow" to a nomination, but it's his own nomination.

Headline: "Trump Threatens to Withdraw Blanche as Attorney General, Dealing Blow to Nomination"
Summary: "President Trump’s threat followed a day of fruitless negotiations with two Republican holdouts, Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis."

The @startribune.com headline writer has utterly misrepresented @walkerorenstein.bsky.social's article. Only Tafoya is tip-toeing around denialism. White is stomping into the middle of it waving a STOLEN ELECTION banner. Schwarze is trying to signal a move from tip-toeing to plunging in.

Minnesota GOP Senate hopefuls tip-toe around Trump’s election denial claims

Michele Tafoya, Adam Schwarze and Royce White all say it’s a priority to pass Trump’s election security bill, which critics say will exclude eligible voters. But the candidates differ on denialism tow...

startribune.com

The sum of a whole bunch of individual decisions happens to end with 000. The probability of that happening is just 1 in 1000. The same as the probability of a total ending in 317 or any other three digits. There's nothing more weird about one than another.

Citywide early votes 7,000. Mail 3,522. In-Person 2,490. Other 988.

Kelly Taschler @ktasch.bsky.social · last wk.

Be wary of comparisons between different Minnesota counties' early voting numbers. Factors such as the convenience of voting locations can substantially affect the number of early voters. Turnout for the full election may be in quite different proportions.

The Minneapolis Early Voting Center at 980 East Hennepin started extended hours today! Minneapolis voters can vote early in person from 8-6 weekdays and 9-3 weekends, and 7-5 on 8/10 (the day before the election). vote.minneapolismn.gov/voters/vote-...

Vote early in-person

Any Minneapolis voter may choose to vote before Election Day. There are often multiple early voting options available. Please review the locations, dates, and hours below.

vote.minneapolismn.gov

Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫@lookitup.baby · last wk.

Can confirm, they were super fast and efficient!

With a Minnesota election nearing, a reminder that every absentee ballot you receive in the mail has a phone number and email address in the return address. Wondering why you got two? The elections office is more likely to know than social media folks. What to do about that coffee spill? Ditto.

Sample absentee ballot transmittal envelope with green highlighting of where the phone number and email address would be at the bottom of the return address

Minnesota administrative rule 8210.0400 governing transmittal envelopes, which specifies that "A telephone number and an electronic mail address that voters can call or contact for help in absentee voting must be printed as part of the return address"

George Monbiot@georgemonbiot.bsky.social · last wk.

Perfect illustration of Box's aphorism that all models are wrong, but some are useful. One doesn't need data to see this model must be wrong: It calls for a single instantaneous change in behavior on what, the 18th birthday? And yet, and yet, it captures, however imperfectly, an aspect of reality.

As you prepare for your holiday outings, please remember Monbiot’s Inviolable Law on Leaving the House: T = 2A² + 5C² Where T is time in minutes, A is adults and C is children.

Well, that's interesting. NPR created a special ratings tier just for us Minnesotans. www.npr.org/2026/07/27/n...

Minnesota absentee voters: There's only a deadline for returning your ballot, not for requesting one. But if you do the math, I'd say today is a great day to get that application in, if you haven't yet. www.sos.mn.gov/elections-vo...

Office of the State Of Minnesota Secretary of State

sos.mn.gov

David E. Sanger@sangernyt.bsky.social · 2w ago

"He has discovered limits on his power that he could have scarcely imagined ...." (Any normal president wouldn't have relied on his imagination. He would have been briefed.) Sobering analysis.

Trump Seems Trapped by Iran War, Even as He Wields the World’s Biggest Hammer www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/u...

I'm sure all the campaign professionals figured this out before me, but if you want to know which Minnesotans have already voted, you've now got two lists to buy instead of one.

Screenshot of web site separately listing requests for accepted absentee ballot lists and early voting lists

Democracy Docket@democracydocket.com · 2w ago

My advice to anxious voters has been: Just vote. However you vote. If you vote by mail, just vote by mail. This latest news is further reinforcement for that advice.

NEW: In a win for voters, the First Circuit appeals court denied Trump's request to allow USPS to move forward with enacting his anti-mail voting executive order. The 2-1 ruling, which applies to 23 states and D.C., comes after a lower court blocked part of the order from being implemented.

Minneapolis shows a substantial increase in in-person voting with the turn from envelope-based voting to voters inserting their ballots into the scanner: 259 in-person voters yesterday at 980 E. Hennepin vs. 156 the highest previous day. That's a 66% increase. vote.minneapolismn.gov/results-data...

Chart of In-person early votes by day with a big upturn at the end

Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl@deardara.bsky.social · 2w ago

Time will tell, but I'd lay a wager that this becomes a classic case study of the Streisand effect. And I'm no gambler.

Holy fuck! Hell yeah; shit yeah!! Museum wall labels, we’re going to war over museum wall labels! They said art history didn’t matter. They tried to stop everyone from majoring in the humanities. Because they want to be us! Fuck yeah! Wall labels in museums are the shit and the brain people got em!

This may have been spray painted by hand, but it is more accurate than many of the computer-generated flags I've seen.

Porch with spray painted depiction of the US flag