Sec. Of State Says Fewer Than 2,500 Absentee Ballots Needed To Be Separated

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Secretary of State Steve Simon says that, with 83 of 87 counties reporting their election results, only 2,447 ballots needed to be segregated.

Just days before the election, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Minnesota absentee ballots would need to be in by 3 p.m. Election Day in order to be counted as per normal.

The ruling noted that the ballots that came in after that deadline would need to be kept separated, in the event a further ruling determined they would not be part the final count.

Simon noted on Friday that the tally of ballots that needed to be separated -- the ones that were postmarked by Election Day but arrived afterward through Nov. 10 -- indicates that the message for everyone to drop their ballots off instead of mailing them "clearly worked."

The number of ballots in the segregated pile is significantly smaller than the voting gap between President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump. Biden received 232,656 votes more than Trump, at last AP count.

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