Three of the Minnehaha County races from the June 4 primary saw an official recount Monday.
And while there was no outcome, the recount board did choose to include 132 absentee ballots that were rejected on Election Day, following a challenge that some state and county officials said fell outside the bounds of state law.
The recount board consisted of Tyler Haigh, Cynthia Mickelson and Jon Sommervold – all Republicans, as no race involved a Democratic candidate.
The first two races went without changes. The board examined portions of the votes and the entire set of ballots went back through the tabulations, showing the exact same results for the Precinct 2-03 committeeman race, where Corey Rehfeldt won Allen Unruh by 90 votes to 89.
It was the same story in the District 11 state representative race, where Brian Mulder and Keri Weems both advanced, each with exactly 627 votes. John Kunnari remained in third place with 617 votes.
However, things were slightly different in the race for district commissioner. Dean Karsky had come in second place in the June 4 primary with just 86 votes more than Roger Russell.
The recount board had the option to reinsert 132 votes rejected on June 4, and chose to do so after examining the state statute regarding challenges.
While at first glance that appears to be enough votes to potentially flip the race, Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson said early on that her informal count of registered voters involved showed only 81 registered Republicans — the only ballots that would have made the commission race appear.
Counting those ballots — and invalidating four ballots during the recount process that were counted on Election Day — slightly widened the margin by which Karsky defeated Russell by 108 votes.
Why were the ballots challenged in the first place?
On June 4, Jessica Pollema challenged a number of absentee ballots in precincts 4-16 and 5-16. While the county board on 5-16 rejected the challenge, the board on 4-16 upheld it and rejected 132 of the absentee ballots that Pollema had challenged.
More: Secretary of State: Minnehaha County ballot challenge was outside state law
Pollema is the president of the South Dakota Canvassing Group, an organization that claims the 2020 election posed “major problems” with the nation’s election systems, calling for a ban on mail-in voting, ballot harvesting and all voting machines , and has a voracious support Anderson, with members often showing up in large numbers at Minnehaha County Commission meetings.
Pollema told the Argus Leader on June 4 that she was challenging the ballots based on voter registration forms that she said showed shared addresses in Sioux Falls mailboxes, a common practice in South Dakota where people who spend all or part of the year years traveling across the country can spend a night in the state, establish it as their legal residence and have their mail forwarded to them.
But Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Daniel Haggar, along with Chief Assistant State’s Attorney Eric Bogue, told the Argus Leader that they submitted to both county boards that the challenge was not allowed under state law, and that it was possible that voters could become homeless. , or living in an RV full time.
The South Dakota Secretary of State’s office agreed, with Division of Elections Director Rachel Soulek saying in a statement:
“We had informed a Minnehaha County official that what was being disputed, according to state law SDCL 12-18-10 on subjects subject to dispute, did not fall within those parameters. This is an issue at the provincial level, but we are deeply concerned and care about the right to vote for all eligible voters.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota celebrated the counting of ballots.
“It is critical that people can exercise their rights to vote and travel or to work and live out of state – without consequences for either,” ACLU Advocacy Manager Samantha Chapman said in a statement Monday morning.
In an updated statement following the decision, Chapman said:
“Because what happens in the primaries is usually a preview of what could happen in the general election, we want to ensure that no inappropriate challenges will be made in November and that no voters will be disenfranchised now or then. ”
The approval of the ballots also came as a relief to Kevin and Carol Alishouse, RVers who spend much of their summers in Sioux Falls before heading out to escape the cold weather.
“South Dakota has benefited from us being here,” Kevin Alishouse said, noting that this is where they license their vehicles, pay taxes and, in his case, even recently had a jury trial.
While the couple voted in person in the June 4 election, the rejection of the ballots left them concerned about whether they would be able to vote in November or whether their ballots would be “thrown in the dump,” he said.
“I’m so happy that everyone’s vote will be counted” after the board decided to count the ballots, said Carol Alishouse, who watched the recount Monday.
“I think justice has been served,” her husband added.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: No races flip after Minnehaha County recount of June 4 primary
