Minnesota Sees Big Increase In Absentee Voting

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota secretary of state's office says more than 189,000 absentee ballots were returned by Tuesday morning.

The office says that's up nearly 50 percent from the absentees accepted in the 2010 election.

The 2014 primary and general elections are the first since Minnesota adopted "no-excuse" absentee voting, which lets voters do so without a reason, such as being out of the precinct on Election Day.

Polls are open Tuesday until 8 p.m. for in-person voting.