Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie says there was a dramatic increase to the success rate of absentee ballots being accepted for last November's general election.
                  
In a report to the legislature, Ritchie said the changes made by the legislature and his office simplified absentee ballot submission.

The report's data shows continued improvement to the success rate for absentee voters who submitted absentee ballots from 97.9% in 2010 to 99.1% in 2012.

During the 2012 election, 140,000 more absentee ballots were submitted than in the 2010 election, further emphasizing the success of the absentee balloting reforms.

Winona County had over a 90% voter turnout on election day in November.

Ritchie said Minnesota leads the nation in voting, but the state must continue to fine tune the elections process using data to improve voter turnout and to protect the integrity of our elections system.