Minnehaha County Auditor floats idea of hand counting ballots in Sioux Falls elections
A routine approval for an election systems agreement by the Minnehaha County commission turned into a surprise debate Tuesday about the future of voting in Sioux Falls.
While the commission approved a three-year agreement with Election Systems & Software to pay for future ballot layouts, ballot printing services and more, Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson floated the idea of possibly hand counting ballots in future elections.
“I’m very much in favor with being a county that does random hand counts at the precinct level along with the tabulators,” she said, adding she wants to be more cautious of the technology used in elections going forward.
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Anderson also said state statute allows for county commissioners to choose how elections can be run in the county.
County auditors typically run elections in their area. But the statute referenced by Anderson allows for the “governing body,” such as a county commission, to adopt, to experiment with or to abandon any automatic tabulating or electronic ballot marking system approved for use by the State Board of Elections.
That’s what happened in 2022 in Tripp County, when Tripp County Commissioners voted to hand count ballots — the first time in nearly 20 years, according to South Dakota Searchlight. Counting boards had to recount ballots multiple times on Election night and ultimately, the hand count led to a court order to reopen a precinct’s ballot box after there was a discrepancy between the number of official completed ballots recorded in the poll books and the number of audited ballots.
The discrepancy was because of human error, when the precinct’s ballots were tallied into another precinct.
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In Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners voiced they felt ambushed by the topic of hand counting ballots when the business was to only approve a service agreement. Commissioner Jean Bender defended ES&S saying that the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office had vetted the business and that Minnehaha County had used it for years.
Commissioner Dean Karsky said the commission was receiving “mixed messages” and the “waters had been muddied.”
Commissioner Joe Kippley said he did not appreciate the way the “smuggling in” of the topic and that if Anderson had a more concrete recommendation on how future elections should be held, then she should bring it.
“I just don’t really have a lot of patience for the nonsense around the election fraud stuff,” he said. “I came of age in the 2000 election and there was a sore loser in that election too. That losing side needs to learn how to lose and come back, change, win over the people and win the next election.”
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Minnehaha County auditor might want to hand count election ballots
