by Dennis Dalman
Although the Feb. 13 deadline has passed for advanced voting registration in the Tuesday, March 5 Presidential Nomination Primary, Sartell residents can still register in person at polling places March 5 and then vote.
To register on election day, please bring to your polling place proof of your identity and proof of your street address.
There are seven polling places in Sartell, one for each of the seven precincts. For more on those places, see “Polling places” at the end of this story.
What is a PNP? It’s a way for voters to express their preference for a presidential candidate to be nominated at each nominating convention of the three “major” parties – Democrat, Republican, Legal Marijuana Now.
The PNP replaces the former preferential “straw polls” that were taken at party caucus meetings in which caucus-goers could fill in their preferences for their party’s presidential candidate.
In a PNP at the polls, a voter must ask for a ballot for the party of their choice and then vote for just one name on that one ballot. They are not allowed to “cross-vote” among two or three of the available party ballots. And only one office, that of the presidency, will be on each ballot.
Voters’ choices of which political ballot they chose will not be made public, though the presidential choices (without names of voters) will be tabulated and known to election officials and to the chairperson of the political party whose ballot a voter selected.
The polls will be open from 7 a.m.-8 p.m.
Voters must be 18 years or older.
If anyone is uncertain as to where their polling place is, they can go to mnvotes.org to type in their home address to determine for sure the correct polling place. Write-in votes will be allowed on the ballots.
The following are the three ballots and the names of the candidates (in alphabetical order) who will be on the ballots as voter choices. (Please note that even though some of the following candidates have dropped out of their races, their names will still be on the ballots, which have already been printed.)
Democratic-Farmer Labor candidates:
Joseph R. Biden Jr., Gabriel Cornejo, Eban Cambridge, Frankie Lozado, Jason Palmer, Dean Phillips, Armando “Mando) Perez-Serrato, Cenk Uygur, Marianne Williamson.
Republican candidates:
Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Donald J. Trump.
The Legal Marijuana Now candidates:
Edward Forchion, Krystal Gabel, Rudy Reyes, Dennis Schuller, Vermin Supreme.
Polling places
Precinct 1: For all residents who live east of Pinecone Road South and south of 2nd Street South. Polling place is at the Sartell Community Center (Liberty 2 Meeting Room), 850 19th St. S.
Precinct 2: For all residents who live on the east side of the Mississippi River (the Benton County portion in east Sartell). The polling place is in the Sartell Public Works Building, 230 Fourth Ave. S.
Precinct 3: For all residents who live east of Pinecone Road N., north of Second Street S., and south of Fifth Street N. The polling place is in the Sartell Community Center (Liberty 1 Meeting Room), 850 19th St. S.
Precinct 4: For all residents who live west of Pinecone Road, south of 2-1/2 Street N. and the portion south of Third Street N. that is west of 19th Avenue N. The polling place is at First United Methodist Church, 1107 Pinecone Road S.
Precinct 5: For all residents who live east of Pinecone Road North, north of Fifth Street N. and south of 12th Street N. The polling place is at Messiah Lutheran Church, 320 Fourth Ave. N.
Precinct 6: For all residents who live east of Pinecone Road North, north of 12th Street N., and the portion west of Pinecone Road N. that is north of 17th Street N. The polling place is located at Celebration Lutheran Church, 1500 Pinecone Road N.
Precinct 7: For all residents who live west of Pinecone Road North, north of 2-1/2 Street N., south of 17th Street N. and the portion north of Third Street N. that lies west of 19th Avenue N., south of 17th Street N. The polling place is at Sartell City Hall, 125 Pinecone Road N.