ROCHESTER — Addie and Ethan Wenz paused for a quick selfie in the rain outside the borough's Government Center on Sunday afternoon.

The couple had just voted early and were wearing their “I Voted” stickers.

“I wanted to make sure I had the time to do it,” Addie said.

More than 1,000 voters cast their ballots at early voting locations in Olmsted County on Sunday. Over the weekend, more than 2,800 voters cast their votes at the county's early voting sites on Saturday and Sunday.

This year marks the first time Minnesota voters will have access to in-person early voting on the Sunday before Tuesday's general election. The reason for this is a law passed by the state parliament in 2023 that expands early voting times and access to postal voting. The law required Minnesota county election offices to conduct in-person early voting on the two Saturdays and Sunday before the general election on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.

In total, Olmsted County election officials accepted 30,400 early ballots.

“It’s a popular service, so we’re happy to do it,” said Luke Turner, Olmsted County elections director.

Interest in early voting exceeds 2020, which set records for early voting in the county. This has likely been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Turner said nearly 1,000 people cast ballots in person during Saturday early voting in 2020, which was a record at the time. The more than 1,400 votes cast per day over the weekend far exceed this.

All of the county's full-time and part-time poll workers, as well as some temporary poll workers, helped keep wait times to about 20 minutes despite the high voter turnout. On Sunday, 12 poll workers and 14 poll workers, along with five full-time poll workers and four other county employees, conducted the polls at the two polling locations, Turner said.

Addie and Ethan Wenz said they just wanted to make sure they were correct. Addie is a nurse and the couple lives with only one car. Ethan said he doesn't want a scenario where Addie is called into work or has a long shift and has to work from home without a car on election day.

“It’s a little bit of logistics and a little bit of excitement,” he said.

Jeremy Carlson, who cast his vote Sunday at the Olmsted County Election Office, 2122 Campus Drive SE, said he wanted to vote early, in part because he was looking forward to the election.

“I’ve never voted before,” he said. “I didn’t want to wait until Tuesday.”

Carlson also said he was worried there could be long lines on Election Day.

At times on Sunday, some voters waited in lines for about 20 minutes before casting their votes.

Turner said people could vote early for any reason. Given the interest in the election, he understands why people might be concerned about long lines. However, because 30,400 Olmsted County voters have already voted, traffic could ease somewhat on Election Day, Turner said.

More than 90,000 people voted in Olmsted County in the 2020 election.

“That means a significant portion of people have already voted,” Turner said.