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.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – More road work and travel impacts are set to begin across western South Dakota this week, with projects ranging from highway striping and crack sealing to temporary rest area closures as well as an upcoming public meeting on a bridge replacement project in Keystone.
The first projects begin Monday, May 11.
S.D. Highway 44: Striping work
On S.D. Highway 44, crews will complete striping work from about 1.5 miles east of Farmingdale to roughly 10.75 miles east of the community.
Work is scheduled from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and is expected to continue through Tuesday evening. Drivers should expect daytime lane impacts in the area.
U.S. Highway 385: Striping work
Also beginning Monday, striping operations are scheduled on U.S. Highway 385 from about one mile south of the U.S. Highway 85 junction near Deadwood to the junction itself. Work is expected to take place during daytime hours Monday through Tuesday.
Pavement preservation project on S.D. Highway 20
A pavement preservation project is also scheduled to start Monday on S.D. Highway 20 between Buffalo and Camp Crook. Crews will be sealing cracks in the roadway as part of the project. Traffic will be reduced to one lane during daytime hours, with flaggers and a pilot car guiding motorists through the work zone. Delays of up to 15 minutes are expected.
The contractor for the $112,155 project is Highway Improvement, Inc. of Sioux Falls. The overall completion date is scheduled for Dec. 4.
Drivers are reminded to slow down and use caution around crews and construction equipment in all work zones.
Wasta rest area spring cleaning
Additional travel impacts are expected latter this week with temporary closures planned at the Wasta Rest Areas along Interstate 90 for annual spring cleaning.
The eastbound Wasta Rest Area near mile marker 98 will close at 7 a.m. Tuesday, May 12, and reopen at 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 13. After that reopening, the westbound rest area will close from 9 a.m. Wednesday until 9 a.m. Thursday, May 14. Travelers are encouraged to make alternate plans during the closures.
Public meeting on future bridge replacement project along U.S. Highway 16A in Keystone
On Thursday, May 14, the South Dakota Department of Transportation and Complete Concrete, Inc. will host a public informational meeting on a future bridge replacement project along U.S. Highway 16A in Keystone.
The open house-style meeting will run from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Keystone Community Center, 1101 Madill St. Officials say the meeting is intended to provide project details and answer questions from residents, businesses and emergency personnel.
The bridge replacement project is scheduled to begin in October. Plans call for replacing the existing bridge with a box culvert and include additional improvements such as intersection upgrades, resurfacing, pavement markings, traffic signals, ADA upgrades and erosion control. Pedestrian access on both sides of the structure will also be improved.
More information on the Keystone project is available at South Dakota Department of Transportation’s project page.
Current road conditions, closures and construction updates can be found at SD511 or by dialing 511.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Copyright 2026 KOTA. All rights reserved.
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at May 10, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from May 10 drawing
01-03-20-35-46, Bonus: 05
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
South Dakota
After Standing Rock, could a canceled mine project offer a roadmap for opponents of a new oil pipeline in South Dakota?
Almost exactly a decade since the start of the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access pipeline gained national and international attention, new disputes are simmering over tribal rights in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Earlier this month, an environmental organization and a Native American advocacy group sued the US Forest Service, claiming that an exploratory graphite drilling project on national forest land threatened a recognized ceremonial site on mountain meadows known as Pe’ Sla, or Reynolds Prairie.
But on Friday, Pete Lien and Sons, the company behind the project, abruptly withdrew, saying it would perform reclamation on the site and would not seek to file another plan. The decision came as a striking victory for Native American tribes and environmental groups that had opposed it – but other projects in the works may not meet the same conclusion.
The project, claimed nine groups within the Sioux Nation, including the Standing Rock Sioux, would “directly and significantly” affect the use of Pe’ Sla, which sits within Ȟe Sápa, the Lakota name for the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota, itself the locus of Lakota creation myths.
A second exploratory project by a Canadian company looking to mine uranium on state-owned land could affect Craven Canyon, an area that contains 7,000-year-old sites of importance to Indigenous tribes, historians and archaeologists.
Opposition to the twin projects – backed by Pete Lien, of Rapid City, and by Clean Nuclear Energy Corp – comes as a proposed Alberta-to-Wyoming pipeline for carrying Canadian crude oil to the US is close to securing commitments from oil companies after Donald Trump granted permitting through an executive order.
All the projects have at their heart issues of extraction, water safety and sacred sites, much as the Standing Rock dispute of 2016 that saw “water protesters” gather in a standoff with law enforcement over concerns regarding water safety and sacred sites.
That case began when the Standing Rock Sioux passed a resolution stating that “the Dakota Access Pipeline poses a serious risk to the very survival of our Tribe and … would destroy valuable cultural resources” and was a violation of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty guaranteeing the “undisturbed use and occupation” of reservation lands surrounding the pipeline.
In the aftermath, the environmental group Greenpeace was ordered to pay damages of $345m by a North Dakota judge to pipeline company Energy Transfer and subsidiary Dakota Access in connection with the protests, an order that is set to go to appeal. Greenpeace claims the legal action is designed to silence activists.
Most of the current disputes relate to energy, reflecting the Trump administration’s drive toward US energy independence and away from dependence on foreign sources, particularly China. Graphite, used in electric vehicle batteries, is almost exclusively imported. Roughly 95%–99% of uranium is purchased from foreign sources, including Russia and Kazakhstan.
The pipeline deal, meanwhile, is expected to help increase oil output from Canada, the world’s fourth-largest producer, to around 6.1m barrels a day, up from 5.5m now. Bridger, the company behind the Alberta-to-Wyoming pipeline, has said the project was being developed in response to identified market interest.
Wizipan “Little Elk” Garriott, a member of NDN Collective, an Indigenous rights group opposing the mining at Pe’ Sla, says the entire process of approval for the planned mine “happened in the dark”.
“There was no notice that they were proceeding provided to us, nor to the sovereign tribal nations,” he says, in violation of environmental and cultural impact study requirements and consultations with the tribes.
Lilias Jarding, director of the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance, one of the parties in the victorious Pe’ Sla action, says the decade since Standing Rock has seen a huge growth in projects attempting to mine tribal lands and areas of ceremonial significance.
Since the start of the second Trump administration, the push for both minerals extraction and energy has dramatically increased. “They’re being more aggressive,” Jarding says. In the case of Pe’ Sla, he adds, the company didn’t stop drilling when the lawsuits was filed: “They started drilling 24 hours a day.”
The alliance, along with tribes, claim the graphite project violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and that the US Forest Service improperly used a process known as a “categorical exclusion” to bypass reviews.
Oglala Sioux president Frank Star Comes Out said in a statement that the Sioux tribes never ceded to the US the lands in the Black Hills, which, he said, “remain the spiritual center of the Great Sioux Nation and they are not for sale, lease or exploitation” and that the lawsuit is a “united tribal response to protect a sacred site from those who continue to desecrate our ancestral lands”.
Oglala activist Taylor Gunhammer said that drilling at Pe’ Sla was akin to “drilling under the Vatican or at a sacred site in Jerusalem”.
A representative of Clean Nuclear Energy Corp, Mike Blady, said the company was “aware of the cultural significance and are doing everything in our power to ensure that there is no collateral damage”.
Will this amount to a populist action similar to Standing Rock?
The Pe’ Sla dispute did not provoke the kind of Indigenous-led, grassroots resistance to fossil-fuel infrastructure projects that accompanied the Dakota Access pipeline, which in some ways became a template for contemporary protests, powered by social media, celebrities and politicians.
The tribes were not in favor of following in that direction, Jarding says: “It’s a deeply sacred spiritual and ceremonial site, and elders have made it clear that it’s not a good place for another Standing Rock with thousands of people. They say this is not the place.”
Under the Biden administration, the tribal groups felt they were entering into a period of co-management policy over federal lands that in many cases lie within treaty agreements. But under the Trump administration, that sense of co-operation has diminished.
“We’ve seen a ramp-up of opening up federal lands for mineral and gas exploration, but as a planet we need to be moving away from fossil fuels and toward policies that are sustainable into the future,” says NDN’s Garriott.
What was planned for Pe’ Sla now, or was happening at Standing Rock a decade ago, or has indeed happened over a long history of disputes between sovereign tribal groups and the US government, he says, is “protecting our land and protecting our water, not only for ourselves but for the planet. We’re not random protesters out there – we’re protecting our own land”.
-
News4 minutes agoWhy cruise ship passengers with possible hantavirus exposure went to Nebraska
-
New York2 hours agoAirbnb Turns to Black Leaders in Its Bid to Make a Comeback in New York
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoMetro Detroit braces for Frost Advisory, Freeze Warning overnight before rain arrives
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours ago50 Beagles Rescued From Wisconsin Lab Arrive in Bay Area, SF Activist Faces Felony Charges
-
Dallas, TX2 hours ago
Former Cowboys QB Craig Morton passes away at age 83
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoBrickell Avenue Bridge openings spark rush hour gridlock concerns in downtown Miami
-
Boston, MA3 hours agoWhat we know about accused Memorial Drive gunman Tyler Brown
-
Denver, CO3 hours agoBroncos Ring of Famer Craig Morton, who led Denver to first Super Bowl, dies at 83
