By Madison McVan | Reporter
Good morning, Reformers.
Today is the first day of early voting in the midterm elections — not to be confused with in-person absentee voting, which began last month.
The difference: when early voting, you cast your ballot straight into the ballot counting machine. When voting in-person absentee, you fill out an absentee ballot on-site, to be counted with the other absentee ballots at a later date.
U.S. Senate candidates Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Michelle Tafoya will debate today at noon on MPR. It’s the only scheduled debate between the two. The Reformer’s Max Nesterak will be there.
The New York Times published a visual explainer today on the minuscule rates of illegal voting. Federal agencies, taking directions from President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that noncitizens are voting en masse, have claimed to find thousands of noncitizen voters — but so far only 25 people have actually been convicted.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted 10 Minnesota residents on charges of illegal voting. In other states, the DOJ has so far struggled to secure convictions in similar cases. Even if they were to find all of the defendants guilty, the number of votes they cast represent such a small percentage of ballots, they can’t swing elections.
Reminder: the Constitution explicitly delegates elections administration to the states.
To the Reformer:
House Speaker Lisa Demuth, the GOP nominee for Minnesota governor, and her running mate Ryan Wilson spoke at a Capitol press conference on Aug. 18, 2026. (Photo by Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer)
By Michelle Griffith
In recent election questionnaires in her bid for governor, House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said she voted to cap the price of insulin for Minnesotans — an example of how she says she has worked throughout her legislative career to make life in the state more affordable.
But Demuth, alongside nearly every other Minnesota Republican, voted against capping the price of co-pays for prescription drugs that treat chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, at $25 per month in 2023. In 2019, Demuth also voted against cost-sharing limits on insulin that would have reduced the price for consumers.
And, in case you missed it yesterday, check out Michelle’s profile of Demuth.
By Alyssa Chen
The Minnesota Department of Health is urging people to get vaccinated for measles if they haven’t already.
The guidance comes amid two unrelated outbreaks of measles since mid-September in rural Fillmore and Todd counties. Minnesota has had 42 recorded cases of measles in 2026, already exceeding the total of 26 cases in 2025.
All of the people who have contracted measles in recent outbreaks were unvaccinated, the health department said.
By Conrad Zbikowski
Conrad Zbikowski, a DFL activist and an advocate for mental health destigmatization, writes about his experience in inpatient mental health treatment in order to demystify the experience.
“The experience of an in-hospital stay has remained hidden from the general public, except in often inaccurate depictions in film and television. By the nature of these places, the media does not take photographs or interview patients when they are in a mental health unit, which can give them an undeserved, negative aura,” Zbikowski writes.
IN OTHER NEWS
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OH BY THE WAY
Congrats on making it to the end of the week. Here’s a song for your Friday, courtesy of Michelle.
That’s all from me. Have a great weekend!
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