This is the first year Minnesotans can submit “no excuse” absentee ballots. A new law allows registered Minnesota voters to cast their ballots early without approved excuses. Before this is law, voters needed to apply in order to get approved to absentee vote. Minnesota has joined 26 other states and the District of Columbia in “no excuse” absentee voting.

Minnesota State Senator, Amy Klobuchar has a positive outlook towards no excuse absentee voting. “Minnesota had the highest voter turnout in the country in 2012, and so this is simply another way to make it easier to vote. So I would predict that we will continue to have a very high percentage of people voting, but I can’t say how those people will vote, or that it will influence who they will vote for. It’s just good to have a lot of people voting. We already had a high voter turnout, even before we did this,” Klobuchar said.

Students at Hamline University come from 40 different states and most are still residents of their home states. In order to be eligible to vote, out-of-state-college students need to register to vote in their new state, or absentee vote from their home state. November’s election was an important election for Minnesota because one of its two Senate seats was up for election. Since Senate terms are six years, the chance to vote for a Senator does not happen very often. Despite the significance of this election, many Hamline students did not vote in November. Hamline sophomore Cate Reynolds from Kansas City, Missouri said, “I didn’t vote because I’m not registered to vote here, and I’m not informed enough to vote.”

Hamline senior Jacklyn Clement from Nashua, New Hampshire said, “I didn’t vote because I don’t pay attention to politics; I would have voted for a random person, and I’m also not registered.”

New Hampshire and Missouri do not offer “no excuse” absentee voting. Both states allow residents to apply for absentee voting and vote using a mail-in application.

Hamline alumnus Patrick Chilton worked for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) as a field organizer for the Al Franken Senate campaign. Chilton said, “The DFL has a robust student outreach. We have at least one student field organizer at every university in the state, and we do dorm storming on college campuses.” DFL workers are sent to knock on college dorm rooms to promote voting. “Dorm storming is great because you can reach a lot of people in a small area,” Chilton said.

Chilton said they saw an increase in absentee voters in the midterm election, and the DFL likes “no excuse” absentee voting. “We love it, we want more people to vote early and more people to vote in general,” Chilton said. 

The DFL Party leaders toured Minnesota on the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) bus. The tour started on Oct. 29 at the State Capitol, and visited each congressional district category. The DFL bus tour stopped at Hamline for a meet and greet event on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Minnesota Secretary of the State Steven Simon won the midterm election against his opponent Dan Severson. Simon attended the Hamline meet and greet event, and spoke about the importance of student voting.

Simon, the author of Minnesota’s no excuse absentee voting law, said, “Right now, any Minnesota resident, whether they are a student or not, can vote from their home, their dorm room, their apartment, their place of work, for any reason or no reason.”

Dorm storming takes place because colleges have large populations of eligible voters that do not vote. This has proven to be an extremely successful tactic to get college students to vote, however it does not happen for every election. College students do not need to wait for someone to knock on their doors; they can register to vote in Minnesota online, by mail or in person. Online applications can be found on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Online Voter Registration Application. Students can register to vote by mail, by sending in a Minnesota Voters Registration Application.

Students can also vote in person at the election polls or at their designated local county elections office. Out of state students can choose to vote in Minnesota, or register to vote in their home state and vote absentee.

Thanks to Minnesota’s new law, absentee voting is easier than ever. So for Minnesota residents and many college students, the combination of dorm storming and relaxed absentee rule, leave few excuses for not voting.