Please rise as you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I played allegiance to the flag in the United States of America.

Welcome everybody to our uh August 14th, 2026 City of Rochester Canvassing Board meeting.

Uh Clerk Raina, please call the roll.

Good afternoon.

Councilmember King?

Here.

Councilmember Miller.

Here.

Councilmember Wall.

Here.

Councilmember Fredericks.

Here.

Councilmember Palmer's absent.

Councilmember Doring?

Here.

Council President Schum.

Here.

Mayor Norton.

Present.

Um you see the order of the agenda.

Is there a motion to approve the agenda?

So move.

Second.

Move by Councilmember.

Whoa.

And uh seconded by Councilmember Miller.

All in favor say aye.

Opposed say nay.

Motion passes.

We have uh reports and recommendations.

One item on today's agenda, which is the canvas of the August 11th, 2026 primary election results.

City Clerk and Caseel, please take it away.

Good afternoon, Mayor, Council President, and Council members.

Today we convene as the canvassing board as required by state statute to officially certify the results of the August 11th, 2026 election.

Um the county canvassing board met this morning and officially certified their results.

And then our uh abstract from the canvassing board, which we'll sign at the end of the meeting tonight, we'll go to the state, and the results will be official.

Um we have all of the summary statements and precinct reports in the folder if you would like to review them.

Otherwise, they're all compiled in the abstract, which was in uh uh the packet.

Um Deputy Clerk Christian Case Cartwright will review our results from the meeting.

Thank you, Ann.

So we thanks.

We have eighty precincts, which are split across six wards.

Oh the thirty-nine polling locations that were used for this election, which you guys approved back at the end of last year.

Uh we recruited five hundred and eighty six election judges.

At the start of the day, there were seventy-nine thousand seven hundred and twelve registered voters at seven AM.

Over the course of the day, we registered seven hundred and twenty-five people for same-day registration.

That is a noticeable increase compared to 2024, where we were south of 200 people on election day.

I want to take a moment here just to put that into a little bit of state context.

So the state of Minnesota's primary election had about a 25% turnout.

Homestead County had about 29%.

And the thing that drove up Wolmstead County's number was Rochester's, which had a 31% turnout.

So we are above average for the state of Minnesota, which obviously historically is one of the top turnout states in the nation.

So it's it's something to be proud of.

So looking at our contest then for November, um, we'll have uh Jess Garcia and Joe Powers have moved forward for the mayor uh positions.

There was an odd primary primary in one or three, and in ward five, Rushi Gupta and Sean Palmer will be on the ballot.

So we just want to thank the City of Rochester voters for their turnout.

Um, we especially want to thank our wonderful team of election judges that work at the polls.

We tell them all the time we could not put on the election without them, and we really appreciate um their service to their community.

Um, our partnership with Olmstead County and their elections office, we want to thank them for all of their hard work.