Early voting starts Friday in Minnesota’s primary elections for U.S. Senate, eight U.S. representative seats, and seats in the state’s House of Representatives and state Secretary of State Steve Simon expects an “intense election year.”

While the primary election is Aug. 13, voters can cast ballots in the 46 days leading up to the primary itself, whether by mail absentee ballots or through in-person early voting.

At a Thursday Capitol press briefing, Simon, the state’s top elections official, said his office expects a busy few months ahead as the Senate, House and legislative races coincide with a presidential election.

Supercharged, highly-polarized era

Simon said his office said it is working to build public trust in the elections system and is positioning itself to combat election misinformation — something Simon says new Minnesota laws put his office in a good position to accomplish.

“I wish for two things over the next 131 days: high turnout and low drama,” he said, looking ahead to the general election on Nov. 5.  “We live in a supercharged, highly-polarized era. But I’m confident that we can overcome those challenges, we have before and 2020 was a good stress test.”

Four years ago, unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud by former President Donald Trump as well as reports of threats to poll workers led to a tumultuous election, and Minnesota’s Legislature in 2023 passed bills aimed at combatting misinformation, such as artificial intelligence-generated “deep fakes,” and intimidation.

Simon said so far there have not been any reports of voting misinformation or any abuse of AI in the leadup to the August primary.

Public testing of ballot machines, review of absentee ballots

The Secretary of State also noted the usual steps his office and local election officials take to ensure election security, including public testing of ballot machines and multiple steps of review for absentee ballots.

More than 30,000 people work as election judges, and there must be an equal number of Democratic-Farmer-Labor and Republican judges at each polling place, Simon said.

Minnesota held its presidential primary in a separate election in March. The only statewide contest in the summer primary is for U.S. Senate.

In that race, DFL-endorsed U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar is seeking the party’s nomination for a fourth term. Also appearing on the ballot are Steve Carlson, Ahmad R. Hassan, George H. Kalberer and perennial candidate Ole Savior.

Running for the Republican Senate nomination are John Berman, Joe Fraser, Patrick D. Munro, Christopher Seymore Sr., Raymond D. Petersen, Loner Blue, Royce White and Alycia R. Gruenhagen.

All eight of Minnesota’s Congressional seats are up for election. In the Fourth District, which covers St. Paul and the east metro, 12-term Congresswoman Betty McCollum is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. In the GOP primary, 2022 candidate May Lor Xiong and Gene Rechtzigel are vying for the nomination.

There are also some contested primaries across the state for the state House of Representatives, where all 134 seats are up for election this year.

How to vote, how to track your vote

More information on the ballot for your address can be found on the Secretary of State’s website at myballotmn.sos.state.mn.us/, or by calling 1-877-600-VOTE (8683).

Unlike many other states, Minnesota does not require party registration to participate in a primary. However, voters can only vote in one party’s primary.

Voters have until July 23 to register to vote or can register to vote at the polls on the day of the election.

Those who choose to send in an absentee ballot can “claw back” their ballot if they change their mind on which candidates they want to back, though the deadline to do so is July 25.

Early in-person voting and absentee voting are options until Aug. 12.

Minnesota has an open primary, meaning anyone 18 or older who is a citizen of the U.S. and not currently incarcerated can participate.

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“What are we even talking about when we talk about mothers?” The question, posed by Regina (Sophie Okonedo) in the midst of a drug-hazy cuddle puddle, is the central idea that animates Annie Baker’s verdant, sun-dappled debut feature “Janet Planet.” For our heroine, 11-year-old Lacy (Zoe Ziegler, in her first film role), it is the East (1991 Northampton, Massachusetts to be exact) and Janet (Julianne Nicholson) is the sun. Lacy’s entire galaxy orbits around her mom, whose gravitational pull draws in a variety of suitors, lovers and friends, all impeding on Lacy’s time and attention from her mother.

In this portrait of a deeply loving and codependent mother-daughter relationship, Baker captures something ineffable about that bond, which is inextricably linked, body and soul, and what it looks like when that connection begins to inevitably fray with age. We open on Lacy making a late-night phone call, begging Janet to pick her up from summer camp. She wants to be at home with her mother, which also means being at home with Wayne (Will Patton), Janet’s current boyfriend, who occupies the first chapter of “Janet Planet.” While relationships may come and go, Lacy always remains, ever watchful, observing her mother’s behavior and how she moves between people.

A chapter title dedicated to one person inherently suggests the end of that chapter and the beginning of another, and “Janet Planet” progresses through the peculiar end of their time with Wayne, and onto Regina, an old friend whom Janet and Lacy run into at a whimsical theatrical happening at a local farm/cult. Regina moves in with them, promising adventures to Lacy, but roommate challenges intrude on the friendship. Then there’s Avi (Elias Koteas), the dreamy, philosophical cult leader who seemingly appears out of thin air to pull Janet into his web.

Lacy watches and waits, taking her piano lessons down the road, playing with her troupe of dolls and figurines, eating ice cream, living both her own childhood and her mother’s adult life simultaneously, often bearing witness to or having conversations with her mother far beyond her own understanding, but bringing her own childlike wisdom to bear. Janet confesses to Lacy that she knows she can make any man fall in love with her if she tries, and Lacy asks if she can simply stop trying. It’s a moment of breathtaking clarity that cuts to the quick.

But Janet doesn’t stop trying, and Lacy’s own obsessive love for her mother quietly evolves, as she comes to see her not as the sun around which life revolves, but as a person continually compelled to orbit others, the cycle churning unceasingly. The expression on Ziegler’s face as the epiphany sets in is so utterly heartbreaking — finally seeing your parent as merely a flawed human being is an inescapable, often liberating, but no less bewildering fact of life to which we all must attend.

Baker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, weaves a sensorial, time-bound spell with “Janet Planet,” which is an utterly transporting cinematic experience and sensual expression of season and setting. She and cinematographer Maria von Hausswolff favor static compositions, then fill the frame with environmental texture captured on wonderfully tactile 16 mm film: lush summer greenery exploding in a riot around a summer dinner eaten on a deck; a moment of stillness as Lacy practices on a keyboard, Janet watching. We are aligned with Lacy’s point of view, snippets of conversations overheard from a perch in a loft, the study of an earring on the floor that becomes a sacred artifact. Often, Baker will let a conversation play out then reveal Lacy just underneath the bottom of the frame, like a jump scare.

Baker sets the scene and then asks us to stay awhile, patient, offering the invitation to concentrate and pay attention in a way that we rarely experience anymore, sustaining awareness to detail. Baker revels in the details in the period-specific costume and production design: every well-loved cotton garment and giant T-shirt; a shampoo bottle that might send the viewer spiraling into memory. You can almost smell the grass and feel the still humid air on your skin.

“Janet Plant” transports us to this time, and this age when all we had to do was just be present, to observe and ruminate on the analog world right in front of us, with the space to ponder the cosmically huge emotional world within us. It’s a bit hard to describe the surprising power of this film, rendered with such granular, minute specificity and fleeting, mysterious emotions. There is no way to predict what will strike a chord, or an arrow into your heart, but one thing is certain: the temporal, emotional, and sensory experience of “Janet Planet” is a uniquely rare gift that needs to be seen and savored.

‘Janet Planet’

4 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for brief strong language, some drug use and thematic elements)

Running time: 1:53

How to watch: In theaters June 28

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The Minnesota Aurora clinched a playoff spot with a 7-0 win on the road against Bavarian United SC on Thursday. The Aurora lead the Heartland Division of the USL W League. They are the third Central Conference team to secure a postseason berth this season.

The conference semifinals and finals will take place from July 5-7. Seeding and host sites are still to be determined.

“Credit to the people who have been here previously, we’re continuing this winning tradition,” sporting director and coach Colette Montgomery said in a press release from the team. “It’s a privilege to do that. We’re excited for the future but taking it one game at a time.”

Minnesota leads the division by four points ahead of River Light FC.

There was little doubting Thursday’s outcome.

Saige Wimes and Sophia French each scored twice, while Katelyn Duong, Mariah Nguyen and Giada Zhou also scored for the Aurora.

Wimes opened the scoring in the 27th minute, followed by Duong and Nguyen with goals before halftime. Duong has now scored is six straight games.

Minnesota finishes the regular season on Saturday at RKC Third Coast.

A long game filled with a 20-minute delay for lights, five errors, an inside-the-park home run and a challenge ended with the St. Paul Saints losing 11-9 to the Iowa Cubs, snapping St. Paul’s nine-game road winning streak.

Matt Wallner, Chris Williams and Yunior Severino each homered for the Saints. Brooks Lee had three hits.

Randy Dobnak started and pitched five innings. He allowed three runs but all the runs were unearned as the Saints committed three errors. Jeff Brigham allowed two runs in the sixth inning in his one inning of relief to blow the save. Nick Wittgren (1-1) took the loss, allowing two runs in two relief innings as the Cubs scored six times in the seventh to take control.

Wallner’s homer was his 19th of the season, which is two behind Memphis Luken Baker for the league lead. Severino hit his 15th home run of the season.

Wallner, Williams and Severino each hit their homers in each of the first three innings. Wallner opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the first. Williams followed with a two-run shot in the second and Severino added a solo home run in the third.

But Iowa scored all three of its runs in the middle three innings.

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