South Dakota: Sioux Falls City Clerk Talks Election Night Challenges | Keloland

From long lines, to near ballot shortages – Tuesday’s election left behind some questions. The last minute rush, absentee voting, and the ballot size itself are just a few of the challenges city officials faced.  About 32,000 votes were cast. “We still seem to have a bit of energy,” Lorie Hogstad, Sioux Falls City Clerk, said. Hogstad’s office is a bit quieter the day after the big city vote.  While she and her team work on post-election details, she touched on the previous night. Election night started like a sprint, but slowed to marathon pace down later in the evening.  The polls were set to close at 7 pm, but the first voting center did not submit ballots until 8 pm.

South Dakota: State, Indian group agree on satellite polling stations | The Argus Leader

After months of acrimony, including legal battles and harsh words, Secretary of State Jason Gant and a group advocating for Native American voting rights have reached a tentative agreement. In a meeting Wednesday in Pierre, Gant, representatives of the nonprofit Four Directions, and a collection of county auditors and other stakeholders agreed on a framework to spend state money to open early voting places in Native American population centers. The plan could “if not double, even triple” voter participation in several Native-dominated communities, said O.J. Semans, Four Directions’ executive director. At issue are Buffalo, Dewey and Jackson counties, where Indian reservations are dozens of miles from the county courthouses, where early voting takes place. That means taking advantage of South Dakota’s weeks of early voting requires long car rides for many residents of the poorest communities in the state.

South Dakota: Election changes win Senate’s OK | Capital Journal

The state Senate unanimously approved two sets of important reforms for South Dakota elections Tuesday. One would allow members of the armed forces to vote with digital technology rather than by U.S. mail. The other would establish a backup system for spring elections interrupted by bad weather or some other emergency. The two measures, SB 34 and SB 35, now go to the House of Representatives for consideration. They are proposed by the state Board of Elections, including Secretary of State Jason Gant.

South Dakota: County commissioners wary about e-poll books | The Argus Leader

Minnehaha County commissioners Tuesday postponed deciding where residents will be allowed to vote in next year’s elections after expressing doubts about the effectiveness of electronic poll books. The Sioux Falls School District was first in the state to experiment with e-poll books and voting centers in 2011 with Secretary of State Jason Gant’s encouragement. Since then, several other local governments have used the system, which enables residents to vote at any of several voting sites throughout the jurisdiction. The electronic poll books ensure people don’t vote more than once. One problem the school district had was getting enough ballots to each voting center. Because any voter can go to any polling place to vote, each site must stock ballots that contain every combination of races that day.

South Dakota: Military voting abroad gets a technology boost | Argus Leader

A new system unveiled Monday will help overseas South Dakota military personnel exercise their right to vote even as they defend that right for those at home, Secretary of State Jason Gant said Monday. It will make it easier for military personnel to obtain absentee ballots and register to vote. That process can take as long as 60 days now, but the new system will allow ballots to be filled out in a few minutes. No other state is doing anything like it, Gant said. “We wanted to truly be innovative in the country,” Gant said. “We didn’t want to copy what another state had done.” The system will enable service members to use the cameras on electronic devices, such as iPads or smartphones, to scan the bar code on their common access cards, the identification cards issued to all service members. … While the system uses online technology, it is not online voting because it requires users to print and mail the ballot. Online voting is controversial because opponents fear that voting information can be intercepted or altered.

South Dakota: Soldiers will be able to vote overseas | The Argus Leader

Absentee voting proved so cumbersome for Maj. Anthony Deiss when the Army National Guardsman was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 that he admits he “didn’t take advantage of it.” But that was then. Now thanks to technological advancements that will be unveiled Monday by Secretary of State Jason Gant, South Dakota service members stationed overseas are going to have a new online option for absentee voting. And Deiss, for one, is all for it. “The right to vote is a fundamental principle of freedom, the freedoms our people are fighting for,” the Rapid City guardsman said Friday. “What better way to show that and exercise that right by giving them another option for voting in a war zone? I think that is very symbolic.”

South Dakota: Ruling sides with Native group over costs of voting-rights lawsuit | The Argus Leader

Twenty-five Native Americans will not have to pay court costs related to their voting-rights lawsuit against the state and Fall River and Shannon counties, a federal judge ruled. The 25 plaintiffs from the Pine Ridge reservation sued in January 2012 to ensure they would get an in-person absentee voting station in Shannon County for the full period allotted by state law. In previous elections, in-person early voting was available only on a limited basis. After the lawsuit was filed, Secretary of State Jason Gant and local officials agreed to provide in-person absentee voting stations in both Shannon and Todd counties. Both counties do not have a courthouse, and the agreement would provide the early absentee voting stations through the 2018 election.

South Dakota: Task force to examine voting | The Argus Leader

Secretary of State Jason Gant will convene a task force this fall to consider possible changes to the state plan under the Help America Vote Act. The decision to name a task force comes after Gant and the Board of Elections deflected a request to establish in-person absentee voting and voter registration stations in three predominantly Native American communities. In his release announcing the task force, Gant said that issue and others could be addressed by the task force. The news release said Gant hoped the group would “strive for uniformity in our election system across all South Dakota counties.” Earlier this summer, voting rights group Four Directions asked the state’s Board of Elections to approve a request to place absentee voting stations in Wanblee, Eagle Butte and Fort Thompson. Four Directions Executive Director OJ Semans noted the state still had about $9 million in HAVA funds, money that Congress appropriated to states to modernize voting equipment and procedures following the controversial presidential election of 2000. Semans estimated the request would cost the state $50,000 per election cycle.

South Dakota: Gant forming task force on federal voting money; rights group calls it delay tactic | Associated Press

South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant said he’s forming a task force to address whether federal Help America Vote Act funds can be used to open satellite registration and early voting offices on three Native American reservations. But the head of a Mission-based voting rights group is calling Gant’s move a delay tactic. “They don’t need a committee,” O.J. Semans, executive director of Four Directions Inc., said Tuesday. “He has the authority to do it.” The 2002 Help America Vote Act was passed by Congress to address voter access issues identified during the 2000 election. Poverty on South Dakota’s reservations and the long distances to polling places hamper Native Americans’ ability to vote, Semans said. Semans has asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to look into the matter, and the American Civil Liberties Union and the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association support the request.

South Dakota: Secretary of State won’t seek second term | Associated Press

South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant said Wednesday he won’t seek re-election and instead will return to the private sector at the end of his first term in office, which runs through the end of 2014. Gant, a Republican, previously worked in health care and was a state senator for six years from Sioux Falls. He said in a statement that he has accomplished his goals, including creating an online system for filing and accessing corporate documents, putting more open records online, increasing transparency in campaign finance and increasing access to the voting booth. His successor will inherit a government agency “that is at the forefront of technology,” he said.

South Dakota: Native voting rights group seeks county’s help | The Argus Leader

Minnehaha County commissioners Tuesday received a second visit from a voting rights activist who wants the commission to censure the county’s insurance cooperative. Bret Healy, consultant for the Four Directions voting rights group, reiterated a request that the county formally express its disapproval of the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance seeking to recover costs from plaintiffs in a federal voting rights lawsuit against the state and Shannon and Fall River counties. U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier dismissed the suit after the state and counties agreed to use federal Help America Vote Act funds to set up satellite voting on the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s Pine Ridge reservation.

South Dakota: No deal on voting rights lawsuit fees | The Argus Leader

An inability to agree to the wording of a joint news release has stalled negotiations between the Four Directions voting rights advocacy group and the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance, the insurance cooperative that provides liability coverage to local government entities in the state. Four Directions executive director O.J. Semans now plans a return to the court of public opinion to try to persuade the SDPAA to stop trying to recover $6,300 in court costs from 25 mostly low-income plaintiffs from the Oglala Sioux Tribe who filed a federal lawsuit against the state and Shannon and Fall River counties to get early voting provisions established on the tribe’s Pine Ridge Reservation. But SDPAA executive director Judy Payne said she thinks while an initial agreement could not be reached, talks between the insurance cooperative and Four Directions are ongoing. “We’re still waiting to hear from their attorney,” she said Thursday. SDPAA lawyer Sara Frankenstein and Four Directions lawyer Steven Sandven are the principals exchanging positions on a joint press statement, “as it should be,” Payne said.

South Dakota: Voting rights case settled, but legal costs question isn’t | The Argus Leader

An organization that lobbies for Indian voting rights is denouncing a decision by a lawyer for Fall River and Shannon counties to seek court costs against 25 Oglala Sioux Tribe members. The 25 plaintiffs sued the counties and the state last year, arguing they didn’t have equal opportunity to vote because Shannon County lacked early voting and voter registration satellite office, unlike other counties. Instead, residents in the mostly Native American county had an abbreviated satellite office or they had to drive to Fall River County, which administers elections for Shannon County. Many Native Americans don’t have a car. But a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit earlier this month after the state agreed to provide money for early voting satellite offices in both Shannon and Todd counties through 2018 for the full 46 days prescribed by state law. In dismissing the lawsuit, Judge Karen Schreier said that because of the agreement, the plaintiffs did not face imminent harm.

South Dakota: 'They Caved': Tribe Claims Win in SD Voting-Rights Suit I CTMN.com

Plaintiffs and defendants both claimed victory on August 6, when U.S. District Court Judge Karen Schreier dismissed the Native voting-rights lawsuit Brooks v. Gant. Oglala Sioux Tribe members had sued South Dakota state and county officials, seeking a satellite early-voting and registration office that would give them elections in their own county and equal to those other South Dakotans enjoy. Once the lawsuit got underway, the state and county defendants promised to use federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) money to give the 25 plaintiffs what they wanted through 2018. According to Judge Schreier, this meant the plaintiffs could no longer show the required “immediate injury,” so she dismissed their claim. However, she noted, her decision was “without prejudice,” meaning that, if necessary, the plaintiffs can sue again. “They caved,” said OJ Semans, Rosebud Sioux civil rights leader and co-director of voting-advocacy group Four Directions. “The court established what the plaintiffs stood up for and what Four Directions has been fighting for since 2004. Right now, there’s full equality for most of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the largest group of Indian voters in the state.”

South Dakota: State cited in federal election complaint | The Argus Leader

An organization that asked Secretary of State Jason Gant and the state Board of Elections to approve three early voting satellite offices in Indian Country filed a complaint Tuesday with the civil rights division of the Justice Department. Four Directions, an advocacy group for Native American voting rights, filed the complaint almost a week after Gant and the Board of Elections declined to establish early voting offices in Fort Thompson, Eagle Butte and Wanblee. The group contends that residents in the predominantly Native American communities don’t have an equal opportunity to vote or register to vote before an election when compared to residents in other parts of the state.

South Dakota: Push for satellite voting centers intensifies | Rapid City Journal

Tribal-voting advocates are pressuring South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant to approve the release of federal funds for satellite voting centers to serve Native American voters in 2014. Four Directions Inc., a Native American voting rights group based on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, asked the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday to investigate Gant’s refusal to release Help America Vote Act funds for voting centers at Wanblee, Eagle Butte and Fort Thompson. Four Directions also wants DOJ to investigate the recent refusal  to support the satellite requests by the state Board of Elections on a 4-3 vote with Gant leading and voting with the opposition. Four Directions Executive Director O.J. Semans attacked those decisions in his letter to the DOJ, saying they reflected ongoing inequality in voting access for tribal people. Semans wrote “it should cause you and everyone who cares about equal access to the ballot box for Native Americans grave concern that this denial is steeped in an intent to discriminate.”

South Dakota: Native American Vote-Suppression Scandal Escalates | Huffington Post

South Dakota has devised an ingenious new way to curb minority voting. For decades, suppressing the Native American vote here has involved activities that might not surprise those who follow enfranchisement issues: last-minute changes to Indian-reservation polling places, asking Native voters for ID that isn’t required, confronting them in precinct parking lots and tailing them from the polls and recording their license-plate numbers. The state and jurisdictions within it have fought and lost some 20 Native voting-rights lawsuits; a major suit is still before the courts. Two South Dakota counties were subject to U.S. Department of Justice oversight until June of this year. That’s when the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, saying, “Today, our Nation has changed.” Yes, it has. The VRA decision provided an opening for those who are uncomfortable when minorities, the poor and other marginalized citizens vote. Since the decision, new measures to limit enfranchisement have swept the country — mostly gerrymandering and restrictions on allowable voter IDs.

South Dakota: Indian voting centers not approved by state elections board | The Argus Leader

The South Dakota Board of Elections on Wednesday declined to endorse a proposal from an advocacy group that called for using federal funds to establish satellite voting centers in three predominantly Native American towns. Four Directions Inc. of Mission requested that the board endorse its plan to use money from the Help America Vote Act, which Congress passed after the contentious 2000 presidential election to modernize voting procedures and administration. The state has about $9 million remaining in HAVA funds, and for less than $50,000 an election, HAVA funds could be used to establish satellite voting centers in Wanblee, Eagle Butte and Fort Thompson. All three towns have larger populations than their respective county seats. Fort Thompson, for example, has a population of 1,375 people, while the county seat of Buffalo County, Gann Valley, has a population of 14. County seats, however, are the only places where people can cast in-person absentee ballots.

South Dakota: Board defers stand on Indian voting stations | The Bellingham Herald

A state panel declined Wednesday to go on record as supporting a plan to set up satellite voter registration and absentee voting offices on three American Indian reservations in South Dakota. The State Election Board voted 4-3 against a plan to support the satellite voting stations after some members said the state first must consult a federal agency to find out whether federal funds can legally be used for the stations. Secretary of State Jason Gant will send a formal request asking the U.S. Election Assistance Commission whether funds South Dakota received from the Help America Vote Act of 2002 can be used for the three stations. Three Indian tribes and a voting-rights group have asked South Dakota to help set up satellite voter registration and absentee voting offices for tribal members who live far from county courthouses. The state is being asked to use federal money to help operate satellite stations at Fort Thompson on the Crow Creek Reservation, at Wanblee on the Pine Ridge Reservation and at Eagle Butte on the Cheyenne River Reservation.

South Dakota: Supreme Court Decision Rolls Back Voting Rights for South Dakota Indians | ICTMN.com

When the U.S. Supreme Court used Shelby County v. Holder to kick Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) back to Congress for a new look at who is still struggling to get to the ballot box, certain things did not change for South Dakota Indians. If they want equal access to voting in any given election cycle, they must request it, pay for it and/or go to court to litigate for it. The Supreme Court decision immediately cut loose two South Dakota counties, Shannon and Todd, which overlap the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations, respectively. Officials there no longer have to “preclear” changes in voting laws and procedures with the Department of Justice and prove they’re not discriminatory.

South Dakota: Panel mulls handling of elections during emergencies | The Argus Leader

South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant wants a task force to address election options during emergencies, such as when an ice storm tore through the state in April, postponing 30 elections. The goal of the task force will be twofold, Gant said. One priority will be to evaluate the actions made by governing bodies to postpone or continue the April 9 elections. “In the conversations I have had with folks who have worked elections, no one could remember a time when 30 elections were postponed,” Gant said. “We need to be proactive in dealing with issues. We need to see what worked, what didn’t work.”

South Dakota: Secretary of State Gant: E-Poll Books Prevent Voter Fraud | Keloland.com

An investigation is underway in Mitchell after Tuesday’s school board election. Craig Guymon, 54, has been arrested, charged and released on bond on a felony charge of voter fraud. Guymon ran for school board in Mitchell as recently as last year, he even filed a lawsuit contesting the election results after he lost. Now he’s accused of double voting but Secretary of State Jason Gant says an investigation into that case could have been avoided with the new electronic poll books he is working to roll out across the state. All it takes is a scan of a driver’s license to confirm a voter’s registration and if that person has already cast a ballot. “That’s why vote centers and electronic poll books are definitely the way to go, not only break down the barriers and allow more people to vote, but also to ensure no one can vote twice,” Gant said.

South Dakota: Bill eliminates absentee voting on Election Day | Rapid City Journal

A bill that would eliminate absentee voting on Election Day is sailing through the Legislature. Currently, walk-up absentee voting is allowed in-person at the courthouse through 3 p.m. on Election Day. The proposal that the House of Representatives is expected to approve today would cut off that type of absentee voting at 5 p.m. on the day before the election. It was approved on a 12-0 vote Tuesday by the House Local Government committee. The Senate previously approved the legislation on a 32-1 vote.

South Dakota: Senate passes absentee voting bill | The Argus Leader

The Senate wants to put a stop to Election Day requests for absentee ballots. South Dakota law requires counties to provide absentee ballots in person until 3 p.m. on Election Day. Senate Bill 130 would push the deadline back to 5 p.m. the day before an election; voters still could turn in absentee ballots the day of an election. The Senate on Wednesday voted 32-1 in favor of the proposal, sending it to the House.

South Dakota: Counties using new voter registration system | Madison Daily Leader

Counties across South Dakota are using a new system to access and update voter records. Total Vote allows county auditors instant access to changes that need to be made, from new voter registrations and pending applications to record deletions due to a death and notices of missing information with existing records. Lake County Auditor Bobbi Janke said she is just starting to use the new system, and it continues to improve every week. South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant said the system was created using input from auditors across the state. The goal was to create one computer system that could be used by all counties and the state. The new program is designed to communicate directly with other state departments that provide alerts related to voter records — like alerts from the state Department of Health regarding a death, which requires the removal of that voter from the active voter registration list. “It’s incorporated all of the election systems into one new system,” Gant said.

South Dakota: House gets chance to talk about election changes | Aberdeen News

A wide assortment of changes in South Dakota’s election laws received a unanimous recommendation Thursday by a legislative panel and, in normal circumstances, would have been placed on the consent calendar for routine approval today by the House of Representatives. But one piece of the package deals directly with the same topic as a lawsuit that targeted Secretary of State Jason Gant last year over the eligibility of House Speaker Brian Gosch to be a candidate for re-election. So Rep. Tim Rounds, R-Pierre, said House members should have the opportunity to talk about the measure, HB 1018. Rounds is chairman of the House Local Government Committee.

South Dakota: State senator drops plans to impeach secretary of state | The Argus Leader

A state senator has abandoned his previously announced plans to impeach South Dakota’s secretary of state. Sen. Stan Adelstein, R-Rapid City, has clashed publicly with Secretary of State Jason Gant for much of the past year, even requesting a criminal investigation of Gant, a Sioux Falls Republican. When that investigation by Attorney General Marty Jackley cleared Gant of any criminal wrongdoing, Adelstein said he was considering impeaching Gant instead. But now Adelstein says he’s given up on that plan. “I’m not going to fool with it any more,” Adelstein said. “If no one else cares, then why should I?”

South Dakota: Decision puts responsibility for ballot statements on secretary of state | Aberdeen News

In one respect Circuit Judge Mark Barnett brought clarity to a vaguely written piece of South Dakota election law last week. He decided the secretary of state must compile “pro” and “con” statements about measures on the statewide election ballot. The judge said the Legislature specifically directed that the secretary of state shall perform that duty and therefore it must be don. That answered the question of whether a “con” statement submitted by state Sen. Stan Adelstein should be added to the voter pamphlet that Secretary of State Jason Gant had already prepared and published for this fall’s general election.

South Dakota: Judge rules South Dakota Secretary of State Gant must reprint pamphlets | Rapid City Journal

A judge on Friday ordered Secretary of State Jason Gant to reprint the state’s election pamphlet and include Sen. Stan Adelstein’s opposition statement to a constitutional amendment backed by the governor. Adelstein, a Republican from Rapid City, filed suit against Gant last week in circuit court in Hughes County, saying Gant broke the law by not including Adelstein’s opposition statement regarding a balanced-budget amendment proposed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard. Adelstein opposed the measure in the Legislature. The court ruling Friday means Gant must reprint the pamphlets with Adelstein’s opposition statement, distribute it to county auditors throughout the state and publish the new version online. Adelstein said the ruling gives voters balanced information about the amendment. “The voters otherwise would be voting for an entirely different thing than they are told,” Adelstein said. “It would be awful for the state to be stuck with this impediment to the constitution.”

South Dakota: Judge rules South Dakota Secretary of State Gant must reprint pamphlets | Rapid City Journal

A judge on Friday ordered Secretary of State Jason Gant to reprint the state’s election pamphlet and include Sen. Stan Adelstein’s opposition statement to a constitutional amendment backed by the governor. Adelstein, a Republican from Rapid City, filed suit against Gant last week in circuit court in Hughes County, saying Gant broke the law by not including Adelstein’s opposition statement regarding a balanced-budget amendment proposed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard. Adelstein opposed the measure in the Legislature. The court ruling Friday means Gant must reprint the pamphlets with Adelstein’s opposition statement, distribute it to county auditors throughout the state and publish the new version online. Adelstein said the ruling gives voters balanced information about the amendment. “The voters otherwise would be voting for an entirely different thing than they are told,” Adelstein said. “It would be awful for the state to be stuck with this impediment to the constitution.”