PIERRE, S.D. — Voter registration applications that were never processed; misleading directions on where and how to register; registered voters turned away at the polls. It sounds like examples of the alleged voter fraud (eventually disproved) that some claimed occurred in the 2020 election.
Except this all happened in South Dakota.
On Tuesday, the Federal District Court for South Dakota approved a settlement between the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the State of South Dakota, resolving a lawsuit challenging the State’s numerous violations of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), also known as the “Motor-Voter Law.”
The federal court ruled in May 2022 that the State of South Dakota committed numerous NVRA violations, which the tribe says, “deprived thousands of tribal members and other citizens of their federally guaranteed opportunities to register to vote and to change their voter registration addresses.”
Included in the NVRA are requirements that allow prospective voters to register to vote while applying for driver’s licenses, as well as while applying for public assistance or disability assistance.
Joining the lawsuit was Rosebud Sioux tribal member Kimberly Dillon, who lives in Rapid City. Her voter registration application was not processed at the DPS office where she completed it. Dillon says she was turned away from the polls in 2020 despite having completed the application.
Additional allegations included that DPS repeatedly failed to accept voter registrations from customers without a Social Security card or driver’s license, despite the NVRA requiring them to do so, and that not all DPS offices provide voter registrations. The DPS office in Dupree, which is a community that is two-thirds Native American, does not provide any voter registration services – in violation of Section 5 of the NVRA.
The lawsuit showed customers who had applied for public assistance and requested voter registration forms but didn’t receive those forms from the state agency as required by law, and customers who were told they had to visit a separate office to register instead of being able to do so during their benefit transaction, also required by the NVRA.
Included in the settlement is the requirement that the State name a statewide NVRA coordinator to ensure compliance across state agencies.
Others involved in the lawsuit, in addition to the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, are the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Lakota People’s Law Project, and voters Kimberly Dillon and Hoksila White Mountain were plaintiffs in Rosebud Sioux Tribe et al v. Barnett et al. The plaintiffs sued the State of South Dakota, specifically Secretary of State Steve Barnett, Department of Social Services Cabinet Secretary Laurie Gill, Department of Labor and Regulations Cabinet Secretary Marcia Hultman, and Department of Public Safety Cabinet Secretary Craig Price
