By: Makenzie Huber
PIERRE, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – Lawmakers introduced more than 50 bills during the 2025 legislation session proposing to alter South Dakota’s election laws.
Almost half are “election integrity” bills, aimed at election security, technology and voter qualifications. Seven of those bills are on the governor’s desk.
Instead of regulating the process, with bills such as those that would have shortened the voter registration deadline and prohibited automatic tabulators, lawmakers this session favored tighter controls on who can participate in South Dakota elections. That includes bills redefining residency for voter registration and creating a federal-only ballot for people such as full-time RVers, whose vehicle registration and use of a mail-forwarding service might be their only connections to the state.
Sen. John Carley, R-Rapid City, introduced a handful of election bills.
“The legislators feel closest to the people, so they see the people-oriented bills as ones they can support more strongly,” Carley said. “Some of the election process-related items are more related to auditors and the secretary of state, which have people arguing against these bills more.”
Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff, R-Pierre, said during a press conference that the recounts and post-election audits in recent elections show that elections “are running pretty much as they should.”
“We have paper ballots, we have voter ID laws and we have post-election audits in place,” Mehlhaff said. “I think our process is pretty good and I think it’s proven to be pretty effective.”
The changes may seem small with each bill, said Samantha Chapman, advocacy manager with the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, but could lead to voter disenfranchisement.
“Taken as a whole, I think voters should see this as a serious threat to our democracy.”
Reacting to residency laws, approving federal-only ballot
People who register under the Uniformed And Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, or list a post office box or mail forwarding service as their address because they don’t live permanently in the state, will only be able to vote on federal races — not local or state elections — if the governor signs House Bill 1208. The legislation mandates the creation of a separate, federal-only ballot for U.S. presidential and congressional races.
House Bill 1066 changes the definition of a South Dakota resident eligible to vote in state and local elections to someone who lives and “usually” sleeps in the same place for 30 consecutive days.
The legislation would also require voters who register using a mail-forwarding service or other post office box as their address to additionally list “a description of the location of the individual’s habitation” to be able to vote in state and local elections. Individuals who leave the state must “intend to return” to qualify as a resident, HB 1208 says.
Hughes County Finance Officer Thomas Oliva said the bills lack the tools and structure for auditors to verify applicants meet residency requirements, so he plans to continue evaluating residency requirements with the “honor system.” He added that HB 1208 would allow an applicant to put in whatever description they want for their living situation to get a state and local ballot without requiring the auditor to verify it.
“If there’s a description of where they’re living, I take it as I’m to accept that. I’m not to investigate and go to the Walmart parking lot and ask for 30 consecutive days of security footage of that RV sitting there,” Oliva said.
Or, an auditor could determine the voter doesn’t qualify as a resident, and refuse to give the voter a state or local ballot.
Lawmakers who voted against the bills said the changes disenfranchise South Dakotans who choose to travel after living most of their lives in South Dakota, as well as other professionals who don’t stay in the state at least 30 consecutive days, such as truckers.
House Minority Leader Erin Healy, D-Sioux Falls, attempted to amend HB 1208 to include statewide elections and ballot questions that affect fees or taxes on the separate ballot. Without including those amendments, it would subject South Dakotans living out-of-state to “taxation and governance without representation,” she said. Her effort failed.
“These voters will still continue to pay state sales tax, they’re going to continue to pay motor vehicle registration fees, they’re going to continue to pay driver’s license fees, they’ll continue to pay county wheel taxes, and there’s still the chance they could be summoned and report for jury duty,” Healy said.
The ACLU sent Gov. Rhoden a letter asking him to veto HB 1208.
Oliva said he hopes the state can “come up with something better.” He added that the bills would add more work for his office to inform voters of the changes as they register to vote or apply for absentee ballots.
Reviewing and challenging SD voter residency
Members of the South Dakota Canvassing Group supported most of the “election integrity” bills introduced this session. The group has reviewed the state’s voter rolls in recent years and unsuccessfully challenged the residency of some absentee voters in the June 2024 primary election.
House Bill 1062 designates a county’s master registration files as public records. The files include voter registration information and absentee ballot information, such as the address an absentee ballot was mailed to and the dates it was requested and returned. The bill also requires the Secretary of State’s Office to update its statewide voter registration file weekly and reduces the cost to access a copy of the state’s voter registration list.
It currently costs $2,500 to purchase a list of South Dakota registered voters, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. HB 1062 would create an electronic spreadsheet option for $225.
In making voter information more public, Chapman said she worries the change will threaten domestic assault survivor safety and will “embolden” targeted misinformation campaigns in South Dakota, inaccurately leading registered voters to believe they can’t vote if they no longer reside at their voter registration address.
The South Dakota Supreme Court denied a request by members of South Dakota Canvassing Group last year to order Secretary of State Monae Johnson and county-level election officials to disqualify 132 primary election ballots cast in Minnehaha County on the grounds that those voters did not meet residency requirements. The boundaries of the two precincts targeted include mail forwarding companies in Sioux Falls.
Senate Bill 185, introduced by Sen. Amber Hulse, R-Hot Springs, would change the challenge process. The bill allows a person to challenge someone’s residency status on grounds other than “identity,” which is what the group used to challenge the 132 ballots last year, or that a person is a felon or mentally incompetent. Challenges could also be based on residency, voting or being registered in another state, or being deceased. Challenges could only be made in the months ahead of the election, not on Election Day. Oliva and Chapman said they worked with Hulse to reach a sufficient end result.
If a county auditor determines a challenge is credible, the challenged person would have to fill out a “verification request” within 30 days to document their qualifications as a registered voter. The state Board of Elections will establish the process by which an auditor researches voters, establishes validity of a challenge and determines what documentation is needed to prove residency qualifications, Hulse told South Dakota Searchlight.
The auditor must remove the person from the voter list if they don’t respond with sufficient evidence and don’t vote between the verification request and immediately after the next general election. An auditor can’t cancel voter registration for a residency challenge within 90 days before an election.
Limiting voting to U.S. citizens
Other bills passed by both chambers are largely a reaction to 273 non-U.S. citizens being removed from South Dakota’s voter roll last year. The noncitizens marked “no” to the citizenship question on their driver’s license application, but were added to the voter roll due to human error, the Secretary of State’s Elections Director Rachel Soulek said at the time.
Noncitizens can obtain a driver’s license or state ID if they are lawful permanent residents or have temporary legal status. There’s a part of the driver’s license form that allows an applicant to register to vote. That part says voters must be citizens.
Soulek said one of the 273 noncitizens cast a ballot. That was during the 2016 general election.
Rep. Kadyn Wittman, D-Sioux Falls, criticized and voted against the bills that arose in response to that situation.
“If we are bringing legislation to try and address something that happened nearly a decade ago by a single individual with this piece of legislation,” Wittman told lawmakers, “I cannot think of a larger form of virtue signaling than this.”
South Dakota’s voter registration form already requires a voter to certify they’re a citizen of the United States. Senate Bill 73 would require people be South Dakota residents when they register to vote while applying for a South Dakota driver’s license.
Senate Bill 75 would require U.S. citizenship status be placed on a driver’s license or nondriver identification card, allowing poll workers to more easily identify if a voter is eligible. Democratic lawmakers argued the bill would lead to discrimination against noncitizens outside of elections.
Senate Bill 68 increases the penalty for voting illegally in the state. Rep. Logan Manhart, R-Aberdeen, carried the bill in the House, calling it an “election integrity” bill and saying it would deter fraudulent voting and keep noncitizens from voting in elections.
Chapman said it intimidates already-registered voters who might not meet new residency requirements approved by the Legislature.
“The goal here is not to protect voters or ‘election integrity.’ The goal is to intimidate,” Chapman said. “The state Legislature should not be using its position to intimidate voters out of participating in our elections.”
Senate Joint Resolution 503 sends a constitutional amendment to South Dakota voters clarifying a person must be a U.S. citizen to vote in the state.
The resolution doesn’t require the governor’s approval. All of the other bills await Gov. Larry Rhoden’s consideration.
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