Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson, center, gives advice to post-election audit workers on June 25, 2024. The county is one of four in South Dakota that will be monitored by the U.S. Justice Department for voting rights in Tuesday's election. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
By: John Hult
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – The U.S. Department of Justice will monitor polling places to ensure voting rights in South Dakota’s most-populated county and three Native American-majority counties on Election Day.
Alison Ramsdell, U.S. attorney for the District of South Dakota, announced via press release Friday afternoon that the department’s Civil Rights Division will monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in Bennett, Jackson, Minnehaha and Oglala Lakota counties.
The federal election monitors will work with state and local election officials “as needed” on Election Day to enforce laws like the Voting Rights, National Voter Registration, Help America Vote, Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting, and Civil Rights acts. Monitors will also be on the lookout for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires polling places offer accommodations to people with disabilities, and for instances of voter intimidation.
The press release does not say why the four counties were chosen for monitoring. There is a history of voting rights litigation in tribal areas, some of which helped redefine state legislative districts that a federal judge ruled had diluted the representation of Native Americans.
The 2024 election will be the first presidential contest overseen by Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson. The auditor, elected in 2022, has courted controversy for public statements questioning the integrity of the 2020 election, for suggesting the county’s election system is untrustworthy, and for her willingness to bolster the claims of groups like South Dakota Canvassing, which has spread misinformation about election interference in the state.
In the June primary, 132 ballots from one Minnehaha County precinct were successfully challenged – at least initially – by an activist named Jessica Pollema, who claimed the ballots were fraudulent because the voters listed P.O. boxes for their address. The state Supreme Court later sided with the Minnehaha County state’s attorney and the Secretary of State’s Office, denying a request to invalidate the votes.
Anderson also recently amended county rules to allow voters to wear election apparel to the polls.
A spokesperson from the Justice Department declined to comment on the reasons for choosing the four counties listed in the press release.
The press release from Ramsdell’s office says Civil Rights Division personnel will be available to field complaints on Election Day. Complaints can also be lodged at www.civilrights.justice.gov, or at 800-253-3931.
Ramsdell’s U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota office will take complaints on Election Day at 605-838-9446, and the local FBI office can be reached at 605-334-6881.
The department’s ADA information hotline can be reached by calling 800-514-0301 or 833-610-1264 (TTY).
More information about voting and elections, including guidance documents and other resources, is available at www.justice.gov/voting.
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