Donald Trump and Joe Biden win Polk County presidential primary in low-turnout election

Mar. 6—EAST GRAND FORKS — Donald Trump and Joe Biden won their respective primaries in Polk County Tuesday during Minnesota's Presidential Primary contest.

In Minnesota,

both Trump and Biden won their statewide primaries

. According to unofficial results from the Minnesota Secretary of State, Trump beat Nikki Haley with 68.94% of the vote in the Republican primary and Biden received 70.1% of the vote in the Democratic primary.

In Polk County, Trump received 79.74% of the vote to Haley's 18.2%. Biden received 82.29% of the vote. Also on the Democratic ballot, 7.98% of voters voted "uncommitted" — meaning they voted for no candidate — and in third place, Minnesota's Dean Phillips, who represents the Third Congressional District and ran in the Democratic primary, received 4.5% of the Polk County vote.

Trump received the highest number of votes of any candidate with 1,700 votes, more than double Biden's 567 votes.

For the Legal Marijuana Now Party, Minnesota's other major party, Rudy Reyes and write-in candidates tied for first place with three votes each, although the three write-in votes didn't necessarily all go to the same candidate. Candidates received 10 votes across the county. That's 1.45% of the total Democratic votes cast and 0.5% of the total Republican votes cast.

Turnout for the election was low, with only 16.9% of Polk County voters participating. According to Sam Melbye, director of property records in Polk County, 60% of votes were cast absentee for the election.

"In the general election in 2022, it was closer to 65% turnout, so it's a really low turnout number," Melbye said. "But for a president primary nomination, that's what I expected was a low turnout."

Turnout was also low in East Grand Forks, the largest city in Polk County. Turnout was only 6.26% of voters. The 2022 general election has a 54% turnout rate.

"We usually have very good turnouts (for elections), but primaries not so much," East Grand Forks City Clerk Megan Nelson said. "Overall things went well, we got everything loaded up and over to Crookston by 9 p.m. ... Overall in election standards, a pretty early night."

Minnesota voters had been able to cast a ballot in the contest since mid-January, and Tuesday was the official Election Day. Minnesota and 14 other states held primaries and caucuses on "Super Tuesday," when the greatest number of delegates are awarded on a single day.

In North Dakota,

Trump won the Republican caucus

on Monday night. The Democratic-NPL party presidential primary ends on March 30.