SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — County auditors have unanswered questions after a Monday news release from the South Dakota Department of Public Safety (DPS) said changes were made to South Dakota’s voter rolls.
On Monday, DPS spokesman Brad Reiners sent out a news release announcing the DPS had discovered the need to remove 273 noncitizen voters from South Dakota voter rolls ahead of the 2024 general election.
“Today, 273 noncitizens are being removed from the South Dakota voter roll. The removal is being executed by the South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office (SOS). This discovery was part of a review to ensure the integrity of South Dakota’s elections and safeguard against improper voter registration,” reads the first half of the release.
“The South Dakota Department of Public Safety (DPS) discovered the need for this correction and worked with the South Dakota Bureau of Information and Telecommunications to implement a fix and ensure election integrity,” the release said.
KELOLAND News reached out to the DPS to ask what role DPS plays in reviewing voter rolls and if they typically oversee the process; what the DPS definition of ‘noncitizen’ is (not a citizen of the U.S., or not a citizen of South Dakota); and how long these noncitizens have been registered.
Reiners responded to KELOLAND’s emailed questions, telling us that “questions of voter registration may be addressed to the Secretary of State’s office.”
Responding to a follow-up question regarding DPS’ role in checking the voter rolls, Reiners replied: “DPS does not examine the voter roles, that’s strictly for the SOS.”
KELOLAND News election resources
KELOLAND News sought clarification on the wording of Reiners’ release in which he wrote that DPS discovered the need for the correction, asking if this meant that DPS had reviewed the rolls and found the issue, or that the Secretary of State’s (SOS) office had discovered it and reported it to DPS who then ‘discovered’ it by way of being informed of it.
Reiners did not reply to this request for clarification.
KELOLAND News also reached out to the SOS, asking for clarification on the process for reviewing voter rolls, whether voters are notified when they are removed, what the appeals process is for voters who feel they were improperly removed, and what the definition of a ‘noncitizen’ is in this context.
The SOS’ office has not responded to our questions at the time of publishing.
County auditors have questions
In an attempt to get further information on the matter, KELOLAND News reached out to a handful of county auditors across the state. We found that they knew little more than we do.
We first spoke with Barb Desersa, Auditor for Tripp/Todd Counties, and Julie Bartling, Auditor for Gregory County. Both of them told KELOLAND News that they had received the release, but have not heard anything else from DPS or the SOS office.
Additionally, neither auditor was sure of the release’s definition of ‘noncitizen’ and whether that referred to someone who is a citizen of another state, or of another country.
Bartling told KELOLAND News her office makes sure voters in her county are residents when they go to cast a ballot, but both she and Desersa indicated that overall verification of voters during registration falls more on the state level than the county level.
All of the counties overseen by Bartling and Desersa are smaller population counties, and each agreed that with only 273 noncitizen voters found, there is a chance none were found in their counties.
With that in mind, we reached out to the auditor of the state’s most populous county — Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson.
Like Desersa and Bartling, Anderson told KELOLAND News Tuesday she had heard nothing from the state regarding whether the voters removed from the rolls were in her county.
Unlike Desersa and Bartling, however, Anderson is confident that the word noncitizens in the release meant non-U.S. citizens.
Anderson says she reached out to the state about the possibility of noncitizens on the rolls on August 29 due to concerns that other states were finding noncitizens registered.
She says she got no response.
Anderson says she is concerned that auditors across the state appear not to have been given more information by DPS or the SOS, saying that even if the voters were not in their counties, they should be informed that the release does not affect them.
“The state has been very bad at communicating with auditors,” Anderson said.
Anderson also said she will be demanding a list of the voters who were removed from voter rolls, and says it is important that auditors receive the information, as absentee voting is already underway.
This matters, according to Anderson, because while she says it is not necessarily a violation for a noncitizen to register to vote, it is a crime for them to actually cast a ballot.
In terms of who is handling the matter — DPS or the SOS’ office — Anderson also expressed confusion, saying South Dakota SOS Monae Johnson had informed them that DPS was handling it.
In their release, DPS says that the removal is being carried out by the SOS.
Moreover, Anderson expressed a belief that while it is up to DPS to verify registration (something she would like to have the ability to do herself), she believes it is the auditor’s role to maintain voter registrations in their own counties, and that the process of removing of fixing registration should be handled by the auditor.
