PIERRE — The South Dakota House of Representatives advanced a bill Wednesday that would make the state’s list of registered voters free and available to the public online, and another bill that would restrict access to registered voters’ contact information.

The two bills, which would amend some of the same sections of existing state law, are yet to be reconciled. Both bills now head to the Senate.

The House voted 37-31 to advance the bill that would make the voter registration list freely available online, after debate over funding and privacy implications. 

The bill would mandate the Secretary of State’s Office to publish the list online, with weekly updates, and to maintain historical archives. Supporters said the bill would reduce barriers to election oversight, citing costs of current voter lists, which are priced at $2,500 per request and up to $3,000 for absentee data.

Rep. Heather Baxter, R-Rapid City, proposed the bill. She said free access to voter rolls is important to secure elections.

“I’m just asking for it to be of no charge since we’ve already paid for it as taxpayers,” Baxter said. 

Rep. Jana Hunt, R-Dupree, said the $2,500 fee is too high for South Dakotans, including political candidates who use voter lists in their campaigns.

“It’s the people in South Dakota that can’t afford a $2,500 fee for voter information. It’s the candidates in this room that struggle with that fee,” she said. 

On that note, Rep. Will Mortenson, R-Fort Pierre, said the bill has more to do with getting campaigns voter information than election integrity. He voted against the legislation.

“Let’s think about who actually accesses these voter files,” Mortenson said. “Let’s be honest: It’s mostly candidates or activist groups or special interest groups. And so we’re going to say, ‘Well, if we’re going to cut a fee, we’re going to start by benefiting the politician before we start benefiting the people.’ And I don’t think that’s right.”

The fees collected to obtain the voter registration list are used for upkeep and technical support for the state’s Total Vote system, which is used statewide by county auditors and the Secretary of State’s Office to manage voter registration and election data.

The bill does not include funding to offset the lost fees. The Secretary of State’s Office — which spoke in opposition to the bill during its initial committee hearing — said the total fees came to about $100,000 last year. 

Opponents also said implementing the changes might require new software, hardware and additional staff to manage archives and fulfill data requests. 

Lindley Howard, McPherson County auditor, said during the committee hearing that she is concerned eliminating fees might transfer a financial burden to local governments. 

Rep. Tim Reisch, R-Howard, said publicly posting a voter registration list including the birth year of voters could result in scammers having a catalog of elderly South Dakotans provided by the state, for free. He voted against the bill in the committee and the House. 

Reish said during the committee hearing that he is all for greater election transparency, “but this bill goes way beyond that.”

Conflicting legislation

The bill that would forbid public access to voters’ phone numbers and emails passed 40-28. 

Rep. Mike Weisgram, R-Fort Pierre, proposed that bill. He said the goal is to limit the number of political texts and emails voters are subjected to during elections. 

The bill would prohibit public access to telephone numbers and email addresses on voter registration forms, in addition to existing protections for Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and full dates of birth.

Weisgram said the bill ensures that disclosures of voter registration information cannot be exploited by campaigns or commercial interests. 

Opponents said the bill is unnecessary because providing a phone number or email address on voter registration forms is already optional. But supporters said many people feel obligated to fill out all the blanks on the forms. 

Rick Weible with South Dakota Canvassing — a group that says it advocates for “election integrity” — spoke against the bill during its committee hearing. He said the data is already available through other sources, so barring the state from giving it out does little good.

“Cat’s out of the bag, because I’m also aggregating data from Facebook, X and all the other social media where, oh yeah, your phone number is part of your account,” Weible said. 

Weisgram said those arguments ignore the intent of the bill.

“What’s more important? A campaign, or the people’s personal information?” he said.

Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt, R-Sioux Falls, voted against making the voter registration list available for free online and in favor of the bill restricting access to voters’ contact information. She told South Dakota Searchlight she was frustrated to see the bills pass in an unreconciled form.

“We should be figuring it out,” she said. “And obviously today, we did not, by passing two bills that conflict with each other.”