Minnehaha County auditor responds to criticism of her comments on county's voting system

Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson remained critical of the South Dakota Secretary of State's office and said she's looking to "restore trust in our elections" in a response to criticism from state Democrats about Anderson's recent comments on the county's election systems.

"It is my goal to ensure that our elections are accurate, accessible, and secure, this is why I am seeking that my staff and I are properly trained to use the election equipment from start to finish," Anderson said in a statement sent to the Argus Leader. "Also, due to a change in custody, we are trying to perform an End-to-End Voting System Acceptance Test before we use the equipment, this is standard and recommended by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Recent training provided by the Secretary of State’s office was not adequate in my opinion and did not instill confidence in me to properly run our elections."

More: SD Democrats criticize Minnehaha County auditor for comments on county voting system

Anderson criticized Secretary of State Monae Johnson and her office a number of times during a Dec. 4 call with members of the office as well as Election Systems & Software, an Omaha-based company that provides the county's voting systems and software.

"We are looking forward to and already preparing for the Sioux Falls City election which will be on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. I am in communication with Election Systems & Software (ES&S) to schedule our in depth training and then we will test the tabulators and voter assistance equipment well before the election, to ensure that every vote is counted properly," Anderson's statement continued. "My personal desire to undergo extensive training and audit the voting system from beginning to end is to restore trust in our elections. As a state, 2024 will be our first year to conduct post-election audits which will also help ensure the accuracy of our processes. The public is encouraged to attend and see the tabulation count on election night and the hand count post-election audit."

The post-election audit process is a recent one for South Dakota, and requires that five percent of the county's precincts be selected at random, and that all those votes in two random contests be manually counted and compared to the results of the county canvass.

Anderson said during the Dec. 4 call that training planned with ES&S had been canceled when she asked unspecified questions to the company, resulting in the call with her and elections coordinator Mike Mathis.

The discussion was contentious at times, with Mathis frustrated that ES&S expressed concerns about an unnamed person who was "highly respected" that Mathis wanted to perform an inspection on the county's voting machines.

Anderson also had a group of nearly two dozen supporters listen in on the call, a fact that other attendees were not aware of until she revealed it near the end.

"I just want you to know that this time I have a lot more witnesses that know that we’re going to get this training, and I hope that it’s gonna happen without any hitches," she said at the time.

More: Minnehaha County auditor says she’s not sure she can trust county’s voting system

“Pretty much every day that’s my question that I get asked, 'Is do you trust our system? How can we trust it?'" Anderson said in the Dec. 4 call. "In all honesty, I can’t give an answer that I trust the system because I'm in the dark. I can’t even get training to happen without going through this call with 12 people or however many people are on this call. I want to understand the system and get the training for myself, and for Mike, because that’s what’s supposed to happen.”

The South Dakota Democratic Party released a statement in response to those comments, with Minnehaha County Democratic Party Chair Erik Muckey saying, 'it is inappropriate for the Minnehaha County Auditor to sow distrust in the integrity of state and local elections in concert with private groups focused on spreading consistently debunked conspiracy theories."

Sen. Liz Larson, D-Sioux Falls, also said in the statement it appeared that "much of the recent dialog about how [election integrity] is managed starts from a place of extreme distrust, and devolves from there."

In her statement, Anderson also referenced the recent rebalancing of election precincts, which increased the total number in the country from 75 to 81.

"Together with my staff we have been working hard to adjust and balance precincts and to reduce the number of precincts with multiple legislative districts," she wrote. "In February, Minnehaha County registered voters should look for a postcard that will identify precinct and polling location changes. We have partnered with some new locations to make voting easier and more accessible for everyone."

More: 10 new election precincts added in Minnehaha County

"My staff is available to make sure you are registered to vote," Anderson concluded. "Please stop by the office and grab a few voter registration forms and make sure your co-workers, friends, family and neighbors are registered."

Neither Johnson's office nor the South Dakota Democratic Party responded to requests for comment on Anderson's statement.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Minnehaha County auditor responds to criticism on voting comments