Trend – Election 2022

Tripp County will be the first South Dakota county in two decades to hand count ballots in an election, according to the Secretary of State's Office. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Tabulator catches human error in Tripp County post-election audit

BY: - November 15, 2022

The case of Tripp County’s 75 “missing” ballots has been solved, County Auditor Barb Desersa said this week. The discrepancy emerged last week after a hand count of ballots in the only county in South Dakota in nearly 20 years to perform one. The mismatch does not have any impact on election results. Tripp County […]

Tripp County will be the first South Dakota county in two decades to hand count ballots in an election, according to the Secretary of State's Office. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Tripp County will need court order to investigate mismatch between hand count and audit

BY: - November 10, 2022

Barb Desersa was awake 40 hours straight between Election Day and Wednesday.  Nearly a quarter of that time was spent supervising volunteers hand-counting ballots for Tripp County. “We left at 5:30 a.m.,” said Desersa, who serves as auditor for Tripp and Todd counties. “We went home, showered and then went back to work.” Several races […]

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks to supporters on Nov. 7, 2022, in Rapid City. (Kevin Eilbeck for South Dakota Searchlight)

Campaigns make final pitches to South Dakota voters

BY: - November 7, 2022

Campaigns made their final pitches to voters on Monday ahead of an election that will see South Dakotans decide on a governor and other statewide offices, as well as the legal status of recreational marijuana and the expansion of Medicaid. Incumbent Republican Gov. Kristi Noem and her opponent, Democrat Jamie Smith, traversed the state over […]

Barb Desersa, Auditor for Tripp and Todd counties in south-central South Dakota, will hand count an estimated 1,050 ballots from Tripp County in the 2022 election.

Tripp County first SD county in two decades to hand count election ballots

BY: - November 3, 2022

An election law on the books since 1994 allows county commissions to overrule the county auditor by “experimenting with” a combined hand-counting and tabulated ballot counting system. That statute allowed the Tripp County Commission in south-central South Dakota to order a hand count for Tuesday’s general election. It also allows the Fall River County Commission […]

Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock campaigning in Atlanta, Oct. 24, 2022. (Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom)

All eyes again on the Peach State: Georgia voters asked to decide U.S. Senate control

BY: - November 2, 2022

ALBANY, Ga.—Shayla Jackson knocks three times before slipping a card with voting information under the blue-painted doors of apartments at Wild Pines, a complex tucked behind Albany State University. As a canvasser for the nonpartisan New Georgia Project, a group dedicated to registering Black, brown and young voters and getting them to the polls, she’ll […]

Water levels at Lake Mead, Nevada, photographed from the Hoover Dam on Oct. 26, 2022, are at 26% of the reservoir’s capacity, which is visible from the change in color of the lake’s walls. (Jacob Fischler/States Newsroom)

Even as drought forces water cutbacks, climate gets short shrift in midterm election

BY: - October 31, 2022

LAKE MEAD, Nev. —The streaks of white on the rock ringing the nation’s largest reservoir show how far its water levels have dropped since it was last full. Lake Mead and nearby Lake Powell, which send water to 40 million people in the Southwest, are at their lowest levels since they were filled in the […]

Stephen Richer, Arizona's Maricopa County recorder, on Oct. 24, 2022. (Photo by Kira Lerner/States Newsroom)

‘Burning the candle at both ends’: Inside one of the nation’s busiest elections offices

BY: - October 29, 2022

PHOENIX — During the first few days that Arizona’s Maricopa County began tabulating early votes, County Recorder Stephen Richer ran between interviews and meetings, responded on Twitter to dozens of voters with questions about the election and held a press conference for reporters. He managed this all while overseeing a staff and volunteers who were […]

COMMENTARY
Monae Johnson waits to welcome potential voters at an October 2022 meet-and-great in a Rapid City coffee shop, during her campaign to become South Dakota's secretary of state. (Seth Tupper/SD Searchlight)

The trouble with Monae Johnson and Jell-O

BY: - October 28, 2022

I was interviewing U.S. Sen. John Thune several years ago when he used a phrase I’d never heard in a political context. He said rounding up votes in the Senate was like “nailing Jell-O to a tree.” Lately, I’ve been thinking the same description applies to something else: interviewing Monae Johnson about the 2020 presidential […]

Noem will host rallies with Gabbard and Youngkin, but won’t attend Trump event in Sioux City

BY: - October 28, 2022

Gov. Kristi Noem will host campaign rallies Wednesday with former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, but Noem’s campaign said she will not attend a rally featuring former President Donald Trump on Thursday in Sioux City.  Trump will appear with Iowa Republican politicians, just across the border from […]

Gov. Kristi Noem attends an event Oct. 12, 2022, at a Sioux Falls grocery store. (John Hult/SD Searchlight)

Poll shows Noem with 19-point lead in governor race

BY: - October 26, 2022

New results from Emerson College Polling say Republican Gov. Kristi Noem leads Democratic challenger Jamie Smith by 19 points in the race for governor of South Dakota. Noem has support from 56 percent of poll respondents, while Smith’s support is at 37 percent. Three percent of respondents support Libertarian Tracey Quint, and 4 percent are […]

Gov. Kristi Noem attends an event Oct. 12, 2022, at a Sioux Falls grocery store. (John Hult/SD Searchlight)

Noem campaign leads statewide candidates in fundraising

BY: - October 25, 2022

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem leads her Democratic challenger Jamie Smith by a wide margin – at least in terms of cash on hand. That’s one takeaway from the release of campaign finance reports for South Dakota political candidates on Monday, the deadline for pre-election disclosures. Noem started the reporting period in May with nearly $7.8 […]

An election worker gathers ballots from a drop box on Oct. 26, 2020, in Springville, Utah. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

More than 9 million voters already have cast their ballots in November elections

BY: - October 25, 2022

WASHINGTON — Roughly 9.4 million Americans have already voted in the midterm elections, casting a combination of in-person early votes and mail-in ballots, according to data compiled by the United States Elections Project. Florida as well as Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania are among the top states in terms of early voting so far.  The initiative, […]