Hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans flocked to the caucuses Tuesday night, giving Sen. Bernie Sanders more than 60 percent of the Minnesota vote in his victory over opponent Hillary Clinton in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party caucus.
The Minnesota DFL reported caucus results from more than 4,000 locations across the state. DFL State Party Chairman Ken Martin was enthusiastic about the night’s turnout and noted the young age of caucus-goers.
“I feel great about what it means when we look around the room and see all these new young people participating in this process,” Martin said. “It’s grass-roots democracy at its finest.”
Although lines were long, those waiting to vote when polls closed at 8 p.m. were still allowed to do so. Martin predicted that in more populated areas like St. Cloud, Mankato and the Twin Cities, voting could continue well into the night.
“In my own precinct there were a lot of young people participating, which for me as a party chair is a fantastic sign. Again, for us it’s as much about nominating our presidential candidate as it is about building our party for the long term,” Martin. said, referring to the turnout in the Eagan area.
Martin also said that in some instances a competitive legislative race took place in addition to the presidential, causing places like South Minneapolis’ District 60 to run out of ballots.
Organizers at such precincts were given a ballot template to photocopy. The integrity of the ballots would be reconciled with the signatures on the sign-in sheets to prevent an over-vote in those precincts to prevent voter fraud. The situation was isolated to three or four precincts in the state.
Overall, Martin estimated Super Tuesday saw the second largest voter turnout ever in Minnesota.
As Sanders began to noticeably pull ahead in the polls, Martin introduced Lisa Bender, the representative of the 10th Ward of Minneapolis to speak on behalf of of Sanders’ campaign.
“We are seeing across the state, not just in diverse urban neighborhoods, not just in communities of color, but with working people across our state,” Bender said. “(People) are listening to Bernie’s message.”
Bender said the numbers presented tonight showed that Minnesotans want a “working people’s champion” like Bernie Sanders to cut through status quo politics.
“What was inspiring to me was to see all of these people, despite the logistical challenges standing in line … because they were so enthusiastic about making sure that they could cast their vote for Senator Sanders or Secretary Clinton,” Martin said. “To me, regardless of who you supported, that’s a win-win for all democrats.”
Emily Sweeney can be reached at swee4225@stthomas.edu.