Voting is the most fundamental right we have in a democracy.
At the ACLU, we know that our country was built on the freedom to vote and elect leaders who govern in our name. We take pride in having participated in reliable elections through times of war, economic depression, and social unrest.
Since the 2020 election, however, anti-democratic forces have attacked voting rights in state legislatures and court houses across the country, including attempts to restrict absentee voting, purge voter rolls, or pass voter ID laws.
That’s why the ACLU has been so engaged in election protection efforts, working to ensure easy, fair, and safe access to the ballot box. We’ve done this by working with our partners to provide individual assistance through the Election Protection Hotline, by addressing systemic issues affecting access to the polls, and, when necessary, seeking relief for voters in the courts.
This year, the ACLU of South Dakota expanded its efforts and placed nearly 50 trained election observers at polling locations in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and Aberdeen to watch for any issues that would disenfranchise voters, including questions about individual voter eligibility and mass challenges to absentee ballots. Observers were also dispatched to the absentee board in Minnehaha County.
These efforts were in direct response to what happened during the June primary election when 132 absentee ballots were rejected in Minnehaha County based on a mass eligibility challenge to the voters’ residency status because they registered to vote with an address affiliated with a mail-forwarding service. The ballots weren’t counted until more than two weeks later when three candidates petitioned for a recount because their races were with a 2% margin. The recount board then opted to include them.
That the ballots weren’t immediately counted was unacceptable.
It’s no secret that some of our elected leaders have tried over the years to disenfranchise South Dakota’s “motor voters,” as they’re sometimes called. But it’s vitally important that people be allowed to exercise their rights to vote and to travel or to work and live out of state – without repercussions to either. They don’t lose the right to vote just because they use a mail-forwarding service.
That brings us to Election Day.
I was trained as an Election Observer and was dispatched to observe the absentee board at the Minnehaha County Administration Building.
Around 60 election workers gathered in the multi-purpose room on the third floor of the admin building. They were mostly white, presented as female, and over the age of 50. There are only a handful of men. In fact, there is only one other person of color in the room other than my fellow ACLU volunteer, Issie Ventura.
Issie and I were joined by Arlene Brandt-Jenson, a long-time environmental conservation specialist. Arlene was volunteering as an ACLU election observer this year, but she’s worked at elections since 2020.
There were two rooms of people working with the absentee board. The first room contains half of the 30,000 mail-in ballots. The election workers have to open every single ballot. They open each envelope, write down the individual's name, and place the ballot in a blue metal box. Later, this box will be placed in the polling machine. Next door the other election workers carefully collect opened envelopes and record the addresses of the mail-in ballots. They also check the opened envelopes by precinct. The list of addresses is then shared with the auditor’s office downstairs. The auditor’s office has to verify if the people are on the list of absentee ballots.
Military and overseas ballots are also counted as part of the mail-in ballots. The polling machine in the smaller adjoining room will begin counting ballots at night. There is a camera in that room so folks can watch from the downstairs of the admin building. The floor we’re on is open to anyone who wants to observe.
While volunteering, I met Bruce Danielson, a longtime election worker. He’s worked at every election since 1964.
“In my 50 years, I’ve really only seen one or two folks try to double vote,” Bruce said. “It’s outside election deniers that have caused us problems.”
The most common problem they run into, Bruce said, is simple mistakes on ballots – not bad intentions of citizens. “It’s important to note that no one table ever has control of a pile of ballots,” he said. People from both parties sit at each table.
Bruce said last time they hand-counted ballots was in 2014.
“I remember getting there at 7 a.m. and finishing the last ballot at 9 a.m. the next day,” he said. “One of the machines died during the process and ever since then we’ve made sure to have a technician in the room on Election Day.”
Everything seemed to be running smoothly during my volunteer shift. Arlene agreed. “It is in the tenets of our constitution that we have fair and free elections,” she said. “We want to make sure that continues.”
Overall, it was an interesting morning. While uneventful, that was for the best. I appreciated learning about the complexity of counting mail-in ballots and found that the detailed system seems to keep everything in order.
As I was volunteering downtown, however, there was an attempt to block some registered voters at Trinity Reformed Church on the south side of Sioux Falls. The challenge was based on questions of the voters’ residency, similar to what we saw during the primary election.
Fortunately, the precinct superintendent denied the challenge before the ACLU had to get involved.
“We’ve worked very hard over the last few months to ensure that all election officials are properly informed and educated to ensure no voters are disenfranchised,” the ACLU told the Argus Leader. “We are pleased that the mass challenge to absentee ballots in Lincoln County was quickly rejected and that the precinct board rightfully determined that these ballots should be counted.”
By volunteering our time, the team of election observers – working in three different cities, four counties, eight polling locations and 11 precincts throughout the state – protected the votes of 16,146 South Dakota. I'm very happy to been a part of it!
