PIERRE, SD – Members of the Government Operations and Audit Committee had several questions for South Dakota Secretary of State Steve Barnett during their meeting last week. Most centered on security of mail-in ballots.
Senator Susan Wismer of Britton says voters are getting a lot of misinformation. “I think these attempts to instill fear about the possibility of duplicate ballots being cast – especially in this time of COVID where everyone has a lot of health concerns – are very detrimental to voter participation, detrimental to our democracy.”
Wismer says legislators have to be careful in criticizing the voting system. “I think we should be careful about what we say as legislators so that we do not tear down the process by planting theories that have very little possibility of happening.”
Committee Chair, Representative Sue Peterson of Sioux Falls says there needs to be a better effort in explaining how the system works. “That there is a process in place to make sure that all legal ballots are counted. And that there are safeguards in place to make sure that other ballots that are cast – whether that happens or not – that there is monitoring and checks and balances. I think that is a good deterrent to stopping things from happening that we don’t want to happen.”
Barnett told the committee that while elections are governed by state laws, each county is responsible for implementing the rules and regulations.
