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The primary election will take place Tuesday, though most of Albert Lea’s small townships and cities opted to go with mail ballots for the election.

Precincts will be open in the city of Albert Lea, Freeman Township and Riceland Township from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and in Hayward Township and Newry Township from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

In  all other counties and townships in the county, people should have received their ballots in the mail and are asked to turn those into the Freeborn County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office. Mail ballots have to be hand-delivered by 8 p.m. on Tuesday. The courthouse will be open at 7 a.m.

If ballots are mailed back, the Auditor-Treasurer’s Office will accept the Tuesday postmark until 5 p.m. Thursday.

Auditor-Treasurer Pat Martinson said the extension to Thursday is due to a court case filed because of the pandemic.

The following is a list of voting locations:

• Albert Lea, Ward 1, precincts 1 and two, Edgewater Bay Pavilion, 1940 Edgewater Drive

• Albert Lea, Ward 2, First Lutheran Church, 301 W. Clark St.

• Albert Lea, Ward 3, United Methodist Church, 702 U.S. Highway 69

• Albert Lea, Ward 4, Grace Lutheran Church, 918 Garfield Ave.

• Albert Lea, Ward 5, City Hall, 221 E. Clark St.

• Albert Lea, Ward 6, Assembly of God Church, 1540 South Shore Drive

• Freeman Township, 13517 760th Ave., Glenville

• Hayward Township, 201 Main St., Hayward

• Newry Township, 29048 890th Ave., Austin

• Riceland Township, 110 W. Park Ave., Hollandale

Martinson said as of Friday morning the county had received 2,250 absentee and mail ballots, compared to 253 in the 2016 primary. 

On the ballot for the primary will be the three commissioner candidates for District 5 in Freeborn County to be narrowed down to two. Running in that race are Lynn Berven, Ted Herman and Mike Lee.

Thomas Martinez and Joe Pacovsky are on the ballot for the DFL seat for District 27A. The winner of that race will go up against Republican Rep. Peggy Bennett.

Also on the ballot will be the U.S. Senate race. For the DFL seat are incumbent Sen. Tina Smith and challengers Christopher Lovell Seymore Sr., Ahmad R. Hassan, Paula Overby and Steve Carlson.

For the Republican seat will be Cynthia Gail, Bob “Again” Carney Jr., James Reibestein, Jason Lewis and John L. Berman.