South Dakota
Amendment H: Opposing sides differ on the likely outcomes of open primaries • South Dakota Searchlight
Supporters of open primaries say shifting to a top-two primary system will whittle candidates down to those who represent a majority of South Dakota voters. But opponents argue it will limit voters’ choices each November.
Amendment H, one of seven statewide questions on South Dakotans’ Nov. 5 ballot, proposes opening up future primary elections and placing all candidates, regardless of party, on a single ballot. The top two vote-getters would advance to the general election.
Currently, only registered Republicans are allowed to vote in Republican primaries. Democrats and independents can vote in Democratic primaries.
The measure would amend the state constitution to implement the change. A “yes” vote supports replacing partisan primaries with a top-two system for all state and local offices. A “no” vote opposes the initiative and keeps South Dakota’s current primary system in place.
Sioux Falls businessman and longtime Republican Joe Kirby leads South Dakota Open Primaries. He hopes the reform increases voter turnout so independents get a “meaningful vote” and candidates change primary campaigns to appeal to all voters.
Washington became the first state to adopt a top-two primary system in 2004, but wasn’t able to implement it until 2008 due to court challenges. California adopted the system in 2010 and implemented it in 2012. Nebraska uses a top-two primary system for state legislative offices, and does not list political parties because the Legislature is nonpartisan.
Both the South Dakota Republican Party and the South Dakota Democratic Party oppose the measure. Democratic Party Executive Director Dan Ahlers said the amendment would not significantly affect voter turnout or candidate moderation.
Increasing voter turnout?
Proponents of Amendment H point to the South Dakota June 2024 primary’s 17% voter turnout — the lowest in recent history — as a reason to switch to a top-two system. In a Republican-leaning state, the primary is more important to many Republican candidates than the general election, even though about half of South Dakota registered voters can’t cast their vote in Republican primaries.
Aside from this year’s primary — which included no statewide races, one Democratic legislative primary and 44 Republican legislative primary races — voter turnout in South Dakota primaries increased over the last decade.
Kirby said a top-two primary would significantly increase voter turnout because it would allow “meaningful” primaries for non-Republican South Dakota voters.
Citing a fiscal estimate from the Legislative Research Council, Kirby said voter turnout would grow by 50,000 voters — which would have increased turnout from 17% to 25% in this year’s primary, or from 32% in 2022 to 40%.
But Ahlers said that estimate is taken out of context. The Legislative Research Council merely estimated the number of extra ballots needed for primaries, not the actual turnout.
“They always have to put a buffer number in there,” he said.
If Amendment H passes, Ahlers doesn’t expect voter turnout to increase significantly. It’s not a primary model that will draw people out to vote but rather the candidates and the issues, Ahlers said. That’s the responsibility of parties, he said, to recruit quality candidates and encourage people to vote.
Average voter turnout in Washington has been lower in some years since the adoption of open primaries, including 31% in 2014, and higher in others, including 54% in 2020. Turnout has been similarly mixed since the implementation of open primaries in California, ranging from 25% in 2014 to 48% in 2016, and never yet equaling the state’s modern, pre-open-primaries high of 58% turnout in the 2006 primary.
Michael Ritter, an assistant professor specializing in election research at Washington State University, said that “more accessible primaries” do boost primary turnout, generally. Open primary models can make voting more accessible to citizens, and it may also increase a person’s commitment to political advocacy, he said.
But, Ritter said, open primary models don’t boost turnout by 10% or more. Just by a few percentage points, or less than 5%.
“That may sound trivial, but it can be important because a lot of elections in this country are decided at the margins,” Ritter said.
Appealing to all South Dakota voters or limiting their options?
Kirby said a top-two primary system shifts away from “party control” and encourages candidates to appeal to all South Dakota voters rather than just a party.
“It’s better to empower the voters of the state,” Kirby said. “Parties will no longer be in control of elections. The voters will be.”
Ahlers said the constitutional amendment is pushed by Republicans who are “frustrated with their own party.” He said the amendment will “disenfranchise voters” because a top-two system could limit the political diversity of candidates on the general election ballot. Two Republicans could appear on the general election ballot rather than a Republican with a Democrat, Libertarian and independent.
“You hear the word ‘open’ and you think, ‘Great. An open process where everyone can participate.’ But this limits your choices. It limits the opportunity for more voices to be heard,” Ahlers said.
In California, the top-two system has motivated new kinds of political strategizing.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Adam Schiff ignored his two Democratic opponents in this year’s primary and instead focused attention on Republican candidate Steve Garvey, even though Garvey has little chance at winning the general election in the Democratic-leaning state. That strategy helped Schiff maneuver Garvey into position as Schiff’s preferred general election opponent, a CalMatters columnist wrote earlier this year. Instead of appealing to moderate voters, Schiff made a partisan appeal to manufacture a relatively easy campaign for himself in the general election.
“Gamesmanship happens in politics,” Kirby countered. “That’s not at all a flaw in the open primary system.”
Republican Rep. Bethany Soye, of Sioux Falls, who opposed Amendment H during a recent debate at the Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary, said the top-two system will make it harder for independent or “grassroots” candidates to run for office because campaigning will be more expensive. They’ll run against more opponents and have a longer campaign cycle, which will “guarantee the perpetual rule of big money” in South Dakota, Soye said.
“The general election is going to be in June and there will never be another independent candidate on the ballot in November,” Soye said.
Washington’s primary came under fire this year as a “bloody mess” because the ballot had an overwhelming number of candidates, wrote a Seattle Times columnist. There were 28 candidates listed on the ballot for governor alone.
There is no limit in Amendment H on the number of candidates that can run in a primary. Kirby said the South Dakota Legislature can address that concern if the measure passes, such as setting the number of petition signatures needed to file a candidacy at a higher level to discourage frivolous campaigns.
The potential for a legal challenge
The attorney general’s explanation of Amendment H notes that the amendment might be challenged in court, but doesn’t say why. The office did not respond to questions from South Dakota Searchlight.
Ahlers dislikes another portion of the amendment’s language, which says “a candidate may select the name of a political party to be listed next to the candidate’s name on the primary ballot.” Ahlers said that provision “encourages voter deception” by allowing candidates to identify with a party even if they aren’t registered with that party.
While candidates can already register under one party and then switch registration once elected, Ahlers said that’s harder to pull off under the current system.
Kirby said if someone is “misrepresenting themselves,” political parties and the media will hold them accountable. He said it hasn’t been an issue in other states.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Part 2 of a 3-part series.
South Dakota’s weak open records law gives police agencies full discretion on whether to release footage from body or dashboard cameras, and in most cases, the videos of officer conduct are never shown to the public.
South Dakota News Watch made formal public records requests to obtain video footage of use of deadly force incidents from eight separate law enforcement agencies in November, and all of the requests were quickly denied.
On a few occasions, South Dakota law enforcement agencies have released video footage of their own accord but not necessarily in cases where officer conduct is in question.
The Watertown Police Department released a video on Facebook in early November showing officers responding to a possible break-in with their guns drawn only to find a whitetail buck that had made it into a bedroom.
In 2016, the Rapid City Police Department posted a dash cam video to its public Facebook page showing the chief’s nephew proposing to his girlfriend in a mock traffic stop. “This one is too good not to share,” the Facebook post noted.
The Rapid City Police Department rejected News Watch’s request for videos of a May 30, 2023, incident in which an officer fatally shot 25-year-old Kyle
Whiting, who brandished a fake gun during a foot chase. A bystander inside a nearby home was also shot in the abdomen by the officer and survived. The state ruled the shooting was justified.
Still images tend to clear officers
Some police agencies will occasionally release still images from body or dashboard camera videos, typically when the screenshots show an officer facing a clear threat that appears to justify use of deadly force.
In August, the state released an image from video of a July 5 chase in which a Sioux Falls police officer shot and wounded 24-year-old Deondre Gene Black Hawk in the 100 block of Garfield Avenue.
One still image released to the public shows the gun Black Hawk fired at police. Another image shows Black Hawk pointing the gun toward a pursuing officer prior to the shooting, which was ruled justified by state investigators.
In 2022, the Rapid City Police Department took the unusual step of inviting local media to privately view body camera footage showing the shooting of Barney Leroy Peoples Jr., who was killed after pointing a rifle at officers. The video was not released to the public, and the shooting was ruled justified by the state.
“This was done for public interest and public safety to dispel a false narrative circulating on social media that could have led to civil unrest,” spokesman Brendyn Medina wrote in an email to News Watch.
In a move that appeared to have political overtones, videos were released in 2021 showing former South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg being pulled over by officers for suspected traffic violations. The videos and audio showed Ravnsborg informing officers of his status as attorney general during the traffic stops, some of which did not result in tickets.
The videos were released during a period when Ravnsborg was facing possible removal from office for striking and killing a pedestrian in September 2020.
Ravnsborg was eventually impeached, an action supported by then-Gov. Kristi Noem, whose office also made the unprecedented move of releasing videos of Ravnsborg being interviewed by detectives during the investigation into the 2020 fatal accident.
Federal agency released SD shooting video
In general, the federal government provides more public access to police videos than states like South Dakota, and that access was expanded in a May 2022 executive order from President Joe Biden.
That order included a requirement to expedite public release of videos from officers’ body-worn cameras. As a result, in October 2022, the U.S. Department of Interior issued a new policy that required federal officers to wear body cameras and sought to make it easier and faster for the media and public to obtain videos captured by federal authorities.
Due in part to that policy, video of a June 2023 police-involved shooting in South Dakota was released by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. In that incident, 39-year-old James Schneider of Watauga fired a weapon and then led authorities on a vehicle chase that ended at the Bullhead Community Center parking lot.
According to the dashboard video, Schneider was waving his arms and holding a handgun in an area where people were present. After he turned to flee into a residential neighborhood, he was shot in the back by an officer. Schneider was found guilty in August of assault and weapons charges after a jury trial and is awaiting sentencing.
In releasing the video, the BIA said it was doing so to be transparent in its operations. To protect the privacy of all involved, faces were blurred in the video.
“The community briefing video is intended to help members of the community gain a better understanding of what occurred,” the BIA said in a release. “We are committed to being transparent with our community.”
Privacy a top concern for agencies
Rapid City police do not routinely release department videos, largely due to privacy concerns of anyone captured in the footage, said Medina, the department spokesman.
“Much of the information collected by (body-worn cameras) is confidential and involves personal information, including that of victims, juveniles, and vulnerable individuals involved in critical and traumatic incidents,” Medina wrote in an email. “It’s important to note that we have had requests from victims and families specifically not to release photos or videos of their encounters with police. Additionally, juvenile and victim information is protected by state statute.”
Almost all states that allow for public video releases do so with caveats that privacy issues and often concerns over protecting prosecutions are met prior to release.
Rapid City shares the management of its video program with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, which recently spent about $48,000 to buy 68 Axon body cameras, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Helene Duhamel.
The Sioux Falls Police Department has an extensive video policy that does not typically allow for public release of videos, said Sgt. Aaron Benson.
“Granting public access to dash and body camera video potentially involves numerous issues relating to the rights of all persons in those videos. These rights include but are not limited to general privacy concerns of victims, suspects, witnesses and others, to statutory and constitutional rights of those same individuals,” Benson wrote in an email. “Additionally, release of video can detrimentally affect ongoing investigations, prosecutions and other legal matters related to those videos.”
McPherson County Sheriff David Ackerman, president of the South Dakota Sheriff’s Association, said body and dash cameras are important tools for police agencies in both urban and rural areas, even though his camera program costs about $60,000 a year, roughly 10% of the overall departmental budget.
“These are very valuable tools, and it’s something that in this day and age, every office and agency needs to have,” Ackerman said. “I’m glad where we are today because they’re for the protection of the public as well as the officers.”
Assistant police chief on body cam: ‘I enjoy wearing it’
Monty Rothenberger, assistant police chief in Yankton, said he supports the use of dash and body cameras as a way to increase accountability for officers and to aid in resolving public complaints.
“I wouldn’t do this job without a body camera, and I enjoy wearing it,” Rothenberger said. “I don’t have anything to hide. And because everything is on video, I feel like Big Brother is watching and I support that.”
The Yankton Police Department bought new cameras last year at a cost of about $80,000, he said.
Rothenberger said that while he is aware of South Dakota public records laws that do not require the department to release videos to the public, he said he personally would support the release of videos in a high-profile or controversial case.
“I’m only speaking for myself, but I would never hide anything like that,” Rothenberger said. “That’s not up to me. … (But) releasing that stuff, it’s good that agencies release things when something has gone wrong and they are being transparent.”
Read part 1 of the 3-part series:
Police videos in SD: Public pays costs but cannot see footage As more states begin to provide public access to videos captured by law enforcement agencies, South Dakota continues to keep a tight lid on them.
Publishing Friday, Dec. 19, part 3: A 2020 legislative effort to regulate body camera videos never made it to a vote, maintaining South Dakota’s national reputation for law enforcement secrecy
This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit organization. Read more stories and donate at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email to get stories when they’re published. Contact content director Bart Pfankuch at bart.pfankuch@sdnewswatch.org.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The governor’s Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force, which aims to determine the best path forward for expanding services, will hold its second meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting will continue the dive into what programming should look like for the new prison. Officials in the Department of Corrections say they appreciate the attention to the issue shown over the year.
“The focus is in the right place. I think people are asking the right questions. I think that it’s being noticed that reentry in totality is a group effort,” Justin Elkins, DOC Chief of Behavioral Health, said.
Sitting at 43%, lawmakers and the Rhoden administration have dedicated a substantial amount of time to addressing recidivism in the state.
“I think people are starting to see that reentry is something our department needs help within terms of collaboration and relationships. Because we only determine part of the equation when it comes to reentry,” Elkins said.
Corrections Reentry Program Manager Scott Day says this change in perspective regarding inmates is needed.
“95% of these individuals are going to come back into your community. They’re going to be your neighbors. They’re going to work at your local fast-food restaurant or at your local store. You’re going to see them walk down the street. We just need to see as a culture that these aren’t bad people; these are just people who need an opportunity to show that they can succeed.”
The prison reset task force, which focused on the structure of the new prison, ensured that programming space increased from what is currently available, even when the location changed from Lincoln County to Sioux Falls.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t constantly think about what we could do more. And the new prison is needed. We need the space, we need the opportunity to get more programming in there,” Day said.
Day says the investment into programming space is not a matter of being soft on crime but rather smart on public safety.
Copyright 2025 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
Link to the listing: https://www.frrmail.com/…
For more information, contact: Cory Busse, Farm & Ranch Realty, Inc., at 785-332-8345 or frr@frrmail.com
KENTUCKY, Hopkins County. Five tracts of river-bottom cropland totaling 597.9 acres sold at auction for $5.39 million, or $9,015 per acre. Tracts ranged from 16 to 255 acres, with much containing drainage tile. Soil types were primarily Karnak silty clay and loam with some Belknap and Robbs silty loam. Structures included a tool shed and a 5,000-bushel grain bin. Tracts ranged in price from $7,800 to $11,500 per acre.
Link to the listing: https://www.kurtzauction.com/…
For more information, contact: Joseph Mills, Kurtz Auction & Realty Co., at 800-262-1204 or jmills@kurtzauction.com.
SOUTH DAKOTA, Dewey County. A contiguous, 1,529-acre farm sold to a single bidder at auction for $2,600 per acre, or $3.98 million. The property was offered in four parcels, two of which were historically in crop production (wheat, oats, corn and sunflowers) and boasted Soil Productivity Indexes of 70 or higher. Another highly productive parcel was planted in grass and alfalfa but could be converted to row crops. The remaining parcel included a blend of cropland, pasture and an updated home with a steel barn, shop, two Quonset-style buildings, continuous panel corrals and water tank.
Link to the listing: https://glcland.com/…
For more information, contact: Kristen Gill, Gill Land Company, at 701.934.2732 or 605.848.4502 or kristen@glcland.com.
**
— These sales figures are provided by the sources and may not be exact because of rounding.
— Submit recent land sales to landwatch@dtn.com
Katie Dehlinger can be reached at katie.dehlinger@dtn.com
Follow Katie on social platform X at @KatieD_DTN
(c) Copyright 2025 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.
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