(a) No later than May 1 of each year, the secretary of state shall supply each auditor with a copy of an example ballot. The example ballot must illustrate the format required for the ballots used in the primary and general elections that year.
(b) The county auditor shall distribute copies of the example ballot to municipal and school district clerks in municipalities and school districts holding elections that year. The official ballot must conform in all respects to the example ballot.
At least two weeks before the state primary the county auditor shall prepare a sample state partisan primary ballot and a sample state and county nonpartisan primary ballot for public inspection. The names of all of the candidates to be voted for in the county shall be placed on the sample ballots, with the names of the candidates for each office arranged in the base rotation as determined by section 206.61, subdivision 5. Only one sample state partisan primary ballot and one sample state and county nonpartisan ballot shall be prepared for any county. The county auditor shall post the sample ballots in a conspicuous place in the auditor's office and shall cause them to be published at least one week before the state primary in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the county.
Official Publication of the State of Minnesota
Revisor of Statutes