South Dakota
Costs and other concerns about low-turnout primary spark thoughts of change • South Dakota Searchlight
Every ballot cast in Lyman County for Tuesday’s primary election was worth $134 in taxpayer money, Lyman County Auditor Kalli Houchin estimated.
Only 67 people voted in the south-central South Dakota county — just over 6% of registered voters. Yet the county spent about $9,000 on ballot printing, hiring election workers and other costs.
In Hughes County, which includes the capital city of Pierre, each of its 304 ballots cast was worth roughly $70 in taxpayer funds. The county had less than 5% voter turnout.
Turnout across South Dakota in the primary was historically low at 17% — the lowest percentage since the state began combining presidential primaries with other primary races in 2000. Turnout was 27% among Republicans and 7% among Democrats, independents and non-politically affiliated voters (who are lumped together in the data because all of them are allowed to vote in Democratic primaries).
“If I could just go out and drag people in to vote, I would, but that’s not something you can do,” Houchin said.
Over half of South Dakota counties didn’t break 20% voter turnout, even though every county held a fully staffed primary day costing its taxpayers thousands of dollars. Sanborn County had the lowest voter turnout at 4.84%, with 31 ballots cast.
Hughes County has five polling places, which are open to any registered voter in the county. Three are in Pierre while two are in rural areas. One person voted at the Harrold location, said Auditor Thomas Oliva, and 13 voted at the Blunt location. Yet the county paid six election workers $18 an hour for those two sites.
“It’s not what I like to see, but it’s something that has to be provided for the people as a fundamental right,” Oliva said. “As a taxpayer, not an auditor, I’m not very happy and I think it was a waste.”
Frustration with costs of poorly attended primaries could factor into a statewide ballot question this fall. Supporters of the open primaries measure say closed primaries such as those held only for Republicans disenfranchise large numbers of voters. Open primaries would include all candidates for an office running in one primary, regardless of their party.
Low voter turnout and Republican upsets
But the low voter turnout number “isn’t a fair gauge” of voter interest in this year’s election, Oliva said.
In Tuesday’s primary, there were no statewide Republican races to vote on: no intra-party challengers against U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, for example, and no presidential primary race since nobody filed to run against Donald Trump. The only statewide race on the Democratic ballot was the presidential primary, which included three challengers with little chance of beating President Joe Biden.
Additionally, there was a dearth of local contests. Democrats have struggled for years to find candidates in the state, so it’s rare to have a Democratic primary. But even among Republicans, there were 26 uncontested Republican legislative primaries. Counties that had the worst voter turnout, such as Lyman and Hughes, didn’t have a ballot for most Republicans in the county. Some Republican voters had only little-known races to vote on, like choosing delegates for the state party convention.
This year was the first in Todd County Auditor Barb DeSersa’s 10-year tenure that her county hasn’t had a Republican primary ballot.
“It kind of makes you nervous that there weren’t contests this year,” DeSersa said. “I hope everybody hasn’t given up. It makes you wonder if people are hesitant to get involved with politics in today’s climate.”
The turnout of 27% for Republicans is actually good for a year like this with so little on the ballot, said Michael Card, associate professor emeritus of political science at the University of South Dakota, but it still leaves party nominees representing only a small slice of voters.
The most common strategy to increase voter turnout is to get voters interested in at least one race on the ballot — creating a sense of urgency or saliency that the results will impact them, Card added. That may have increased Republican turnout in some areas where legislative races included candidates from rival factions of the party.
“Conflict gets people to go,” Card said.
Conflict can also push moderate voters away. In this case, the Republican voters who did show up tended to vote for more ideologically conservative challengers, ousting a group of 14 incumbents across the state, according to unofficial results. That group included many “stalwart Republican” types, Card said.
“If there are competing visions and ideologies for candidates, people not going out to vote may mean the individuals who are selected aren’t representative of the overall population,” Card said, “because only the true partisans or politicos end up selecting who’s going to represent the party in the general election.”
Non-voters show ‘disgust’ and ‘disenchantment’ with politics
Many of the counties that had the highest voter turnout in the state had nonpartisan issues on the ballot: Harding (40.89%) had a hotly contested school board race, Davison (40.79%) included a ballot question for Mitchell residents about dredging Lake Mitchell, and three counties — Gregory (39.47%), Tripp (37.4%) and Haakon (34.25%) — had ballot initiatives to ban vote-counting machines (each of which failed).
Oliva said he sees the national political climate turning off moderate voters, which might explain low voter turnout even in counties that had hotly contested races.
Pennington County, the second most populated in the state, where there were several heated legislative races, had 16% voter turnout. The state’s most populated county, Minnehaha, had 10% voter turnout.
“It’s put a bad taste in so many people’s mouths and people are throwing their hands up — and not in a good way,” Oliva said. “They’re just not going to vote.”
The Augustana Research Institute’s Beacom Research Fellows program is studying low voter turnout in Sioux Falls with the local chapter of the League of Women Voters. Fellows studying the issue conducted a survey of registered voters in the city who haven’t voted in recent years.
Suzanne Smith, associate vice president of enterprise data analytics and the Augustana Research Institute, mentors the fellows in their research. She said the biggest factor discouraging people from voting was attitudinal — a general “disgust” or “disenchantment” with politics.
Smith said a final report with recommendations to increase turnout is expected to be released at the end of this month. Preliminary ideas for the League of Women Voters include making better use of social media to encourage voting, communicating more with voters during non-election years to keep them registered and engaged, and using strategies to make voting part of the “social norm.”
“I think we all believe the way democracy works is we get to weigh in on the rules that govern our society – city, school, county, state,” Smith said. “Whether turnout is 6% or 26% of the population that’s voicing an opinion, it raises the question of if it’s representative of the will of the people. It’s on us as individuals to make sure the rules established do reflect what the bulk of the people in the community think.”
Auditors and experts across the state expect significantly higher participation in the Nov. 5 general election, with a presidential election, a U.S. House race, and at least six statewide measures among the items on the ballot.
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Definition of a Buck Deer and Bull Elk Antler
The Commission finalized a clean-up to remove “polished antler” and replace with “antler” from the definition of a buck and bull to allow an individual to harvest a velvet antlered deer or elk.
Spring and Fall Turkey Seasons
The Commission made several changes to the spring and fall turkey seasons.
For the Spring Turkey Season, references to federal property closures were removed from administrative rule and the Day and Codington County combined unit was separated into county specific units for Day (PST-22A) and Codington (PST-05A) counties.
Changes to the Fall Turkey Season include a weapons restriction change allowing for the use of rifles or shotguns for hunting turkeys in the fall for all units, except for Minnehaha County. In addition, the changes to fall turkey unit boundaries will result in the same Spring and Fall turkey unit boundaries for all units, except for the Black Hills.
The Commission closed Bennett and Sanborn counties to spring firearm turkey hunting. The Commission closed Gregory and Mellette counties to fall turkey hunting and opened Hughes County. All spring and fall turkey hunting season unit license numbers were finalized.
Tagging and Transportation of Shooting Preserve Harvested Pheasants
The Commission adopted additional allowances for the transportation of harvested birds from a private shooting preserve directly to a lodge or cleaning facility not located on permitted acres prior to tagging. This finalization is the result of a public petition.
PROPOSALS
Aquatic Invasive Species Regulations
The Commission proposed to add golden mussels to the current list of Aquatic Invasive Species. Currently, golden mussels have established populations in western North America and are spreading east. They have similar effects as zebra mussels. They are not in South Dakota at this time.
The Commission also proposed to exclude phragmites species from types of vegetation that can be used as blind material on boats when being launched or trailered. Phragmites could be used as blind material, but cannot be transported from the waterbody.
Bait Regulations
The Commission proposed to remove the requirement to submit an annual summary of bait harvested for resident bait dealers. Resident bait dealers who trap their own bait would still be required to maintain daily records of bait trapped.
Muskellunge Limits
The Commission proposed to modify the daily and possession limit of muskellunge and northern-muskellunge (tiger) cross from catch and release to 1 daily, 2 in possession with a 45-inch minimum length limit for inland waters.
Fishing Tournaments
The Commission proposed to modify the dates when a fishing tournament cannot occur to clarify fishing tournaments cannot occur on the Friday of the 4th of July weekend, if the 4th falls on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday.
Fish Pathogens
The Commission proposed to update the list of fish pathogens of regulatory concern used for fish importation permit requirements. This change would reduce the regulatory burden on importers and suppliers by reducing the number of pathogens that must be tested for. The proposed changes reflect current fish health standards and disease risk assessments while maintaining safeguards to prevent the introduction of significant fish pathogens into South Dakota waters.
Paddlefish Transportation
The Commission proposed to modify the transportation requirements for paddlefish harvested during the archery season below Gavins Point Dam to allow for harvested paddlefish to be cleaned, including removal of the head, skin and tail, prior to transport.
Bobcat Hunting Season
The Commission proposed the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 Bobcat Hunting Season with no recommended changes to administrative rule from past years. With no changes to rule, the current season structure will be retained.
Endangered and Threatened Species
The Commission proposed to remove the Eskimo curlew and Least tern from the list of
endangered birds.
The Eskimo curlew is believed to be extinct throughout its range. The last confirmed
observation occurred in Barbados in 1963, and there are no records of the species in the South Dakota Nongame Conservation Database.
The Least tern was removed from the Federal List of Threatened and Endangered Species in 2021. In South Dakota, Least terns have been monitored annually for more than 30 years, and recovery criteria have been met for multiple consecutive years, including the most recent monitoring period.
Public Comments Being Accepted
To hear the discussion on these topics, audio from the meeting is available through South Dakota Public Broadcasting and will soon be available on the GFP website as part of the meeting archive.
To see these topics in their entirety, visit gfp.sd.gov/commission/information.
To be included in the public record and to be considered by the Commission, comments must include a full name and city of residence and be submitted by 11:59 p.m. CDT on Sept. 6.
The next GFP Commission meeting will be held in Winner, September 10-11.
South Dakota
MN officials warn dogs adopted from South Dakota show ‘high prevalence of canine brucellosis’
Image on the left shows a dog waiting for adoption in a shelter (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images). image on the right shows an optical microscope view of bacterium brucella canis causes brucellosis (Photo by: BSIP/Education Images/Un (Getty Images)
The Minnesota Board of Animal Health is warning that some dogs adopted from South Dakota are testing positive for canine brucellosis, a contagious and uncurable infection.
Dogs from South Dakota carrying canine brucellosis
By the numbers:
State officials say that so far in 2026, there have been seven canine brucellosis positive dogs traced to South Dakota.
What they’re saying:
Companion Animal Program Veterinarian Dr. Steve Kivisto shared the following statement on the matter.
“We’re evaluating new import requirements and quarantine procedures for dogs coming into Minnesota from South Dakota due to a high prevalence of canine brucellosis in dogs rescued from that geographic area in the past few years,” said companion animal program veterinarian Dr. Steve Kivisto. “We’ve also had recent cases imported from other states and will consider additional requirements if those also prove to contain a pattern of canine brucellosis.”
Dig deeper:
Canine brucellosis is an infection that primarily affects dogs, but there are strains capable of infecting other species, including humans.
The infection in dogs is not curable, and should an owner choose to attempt treatment, their pet could still continue to shed the bacteria. Infected dogs would either need to be quarantined for life or humanely euthanized to prevent the spread.
People who live with or work closely with animals are also at risk of contracting brucellosis.
What you can do:
Officials say anyone bringing dogs into Minnesota for resale or adoption must have a veterinarian examine the animal and sign off on a certificate of veterinary inspection certifying that it appears free from disease.
Testing is also highly recommended since infected dogs can appear healthy.
The Source: This story uses information shared by the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.
A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil discovered on a ranch in western South Dakota will be auctioned off in New York City on Tuesday with a possible sale price of $30 million or more.
The 38-foot long skeleton, nicknamed Gus, stands more than 12 feet tall and has one of the most complete T. rex skeletons ever found. According to Sotheby’s auction house, which is handling the sale, Gus could bring the highest sale price ever for a dinosaur fossil.
The dinosaur is from the late Cretaceous Period and was believed to have lived on Earth 67 million years ago.
The Harding County ranch where the skeleton was found lies in the famed Hell Creek Formation, a geological region of northwestern South Dakota and parts of Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming where dinosaur finds are fairly common.
Several other major dinosaur finds have been made there, including Sue, the famous T. rex discovered in 1990. After legal wrangling over ownership, Sue was auctioned in 1997 at a sale price of $8.3 million to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where it remains today.
(Photo: Malcolm Ritter)
The first piece of Gus, a metatarsal from the dinosaur’s foot, was found in 2021 sticking out of the ground on a Harding County ranch owned by Gary and Dana Licking. The find was made by paleontologists with Theropoda Expeditions, a Texas company specializing in commercial excavation, preparation and mounting of dinosaur fossils.
The fossil consists of 183 bone elements, making up 61% of the possible bones in the dinosaur’s body and representing 75% to 80% of the original bone mass by weight, Sotheby’s said.
The dinosaur Sue is 40 feet long and 13 feet tall and is considered the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton ever discovered at 90% of possible bone mass.
“This is our longest-term project ever,” Cassandra Hatton, worldwide head of Sotheby’s Science & Natural History division, said in the video. “From the day the first bone was discovered, we’ve been going back and forth to South Dakota to oversee this whole process.”
The lowest opening bid accepted will be $19 million, with an estimated sale price up to $30 million or more depending on buyer interest, Sotheby’s said.
Gus is named after rancher Gary Licking, whose nickname was Gus. Licking died at age 67 in February 2022, before the full extent of the T. rex skeleton was known.
Gary and Dana Licking married in 1983 and lived on their family ranch 11 miles west of Buffalo, according to Gary’s obituary.
Dana Licking said in Sotheby’s video that she was impressed at the level of skill and professionalism displayed by the paleontologists who discovered the skeleton.
“I’m really grateful that they found it because it could have been lost and nobody ever would learn anything about it,” she said.
Walter Stein, owner of PaleoAdventures in Belle Fourche, in western South Dakota, is an independent paleontologist who is also working to uncover fossils in the Hell Creek Formation.
Western South Dakota is likely to remain a hotbed for discovery of dinosaur fossils, said Stein, who last year opened the Dinosaurs of the Hell Creek Museum in Belle Fourche, a 6,500 square-foot museum with a working paleontology lab, interactive exhibits and dinosaur displays.
“Finding a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton with 183 bones doesn’t happen every day,” he said.
Stein said the auction of Gus could lead to a purchase by either a museum or a private individual or group.
But it is unlikely an American museum would have the funding to acquire Gus because many are struggling or struggling financially, Stein said. Across the world, however, interest remains high in major fossils in countries where funding may be more accessible, such as in Japan, Korea, China, Dubai, Saudi Arabia or in Europe, Stein said.
“On the one hand, I would love for this and every fossil I collect to go to a museum,” he said. “However, there’s so many dinosaur specimens and skeletons on display, it’s not going to affect the science that much if it ends up in private hands.”
— This story originally published on southdakotanewswatch.org.
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