SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — With 94% of the state’s precinct votes in, 70% of the state registered voters participated in the 2024 general election, according to the Secretary of State’s website as of 3:40 p.m. Wednesday.
Brown County auditor Lynn Heupel was hoping for an 80% voter turnout. The early results were strong on Tuesday which made 80% look possible, but the county finished with 67% of its active voters participating.
“I didn’t hit my 80%, but it’s still a good turnout,” Heupel said.
The county had 17,353 total votes and 8,731 of those were absentee voters.
The turnout in Lincoln County was 76%. The county had 37,039 of its 48,754 registered voters participate in the election.
County auditor Sheri Lund knew the exact time poll workers completed the ballot count.
“It was 4 a.m. this morning. I can tell you that,” Lund said.
Four years prior, the count was done around 3 a.m., she said.
Pennington County auditor Cindy Mohler said 57,555 voters cast ballots for this election.
“I’m a little bit disappointed. I thought we might hit the 70% mark,” Mohler said.
About 29,000 of those ballots were absentee ballots. The county had 2,000 people vote by absentee ballot on the Monday prior to the election, she said.
Counting the absentee ballots took some time in Pennington County, Mohler said.
The ballots were long this year and were tri-folded into the ballot envelope, she said. Those ballots would jam in the tabulation equipment, Mohler said.
“We didn’t get out until 5 this morning (Wednesday). I’ve never been here that late,” Mohler said.
Mohler said she’d like it if the state allowed the option for absentee ballot boards to meet on the Monday prior to the Tuesday election to process those ballots. If those ballots were processed on Monday, poll workers could count them on Tuesday morning, Mohler said.
As the law is now, “We can’t do it until Tuesday,” Mohler said of the absentee board and processing.
Heupel said her team was counting ballots until about 4 a.m. Wednesday. “That’s the latest I’ve had to be here,” Heupel said.
“Ours went smoothly,” Heupel said of counting absentee ballots. “Ours were only folded slightly because we went with the bigger-sized envelope.”
It was, however, time consuming to go through the list of voters to verify, Heupel said.
Lund said the voting “machines worked fabulously” in Lincoln County. “The biggest problem we had was to record votes for a bunch of people who had not followed instructions,” Lund said.
Voters may have filled out a circle on the ballot and then, partially filled out another circle. Poll workers needed to complete a new ballot to make sure a partially filled circle was completed, Lund said.
It took a lot of time to correct those ballots, Lund said.
Heupel said Brown County had some ballots that needed correcting. ” A few just had a check mark or an X and didn’t fill it out like they should,” Heupel said.
Like in Lincoln County, those ballots are reviewed and completed correctly when that applies.
Lund said the absentee ballot process has worked but she is curious to learn more about how other states or counties tally all votes For example, election workers in a very populous county or city, she said, would not be able to stand at one machine and feed only that one machine votes.
