A number of my Lake County friends have noted the close margin by which political rookie Republican Jordan Youngberg wrested the District 8 Senate seat from veteran Democratic legislator Scott Parsley. Youngberg won 5,869 votes, just 94 more than Parsley.
One could attribute Youngberg’s victory to the harder-right electorate of Sanborn County, which went for “R” over experience by 270 votes.
One could also attribute Youngberg’s victory to to his ability to peel away some of the Madison vote that Parsley’s last opponent, Daugaard appointee Chuck Jones from Flandreau, was unable to grab. Both Parsley and Youngberg live in Madison, and they split the 3,990 voters in Madison’s three wards almost right down the middle, with Parsley taking just 6 more Madison votes than Youngberg. By keeping Madison even, Youngberg was able to claim more of the rural vote and win Lake County by 142 votes.
Of course, not all of those Madison voters were actual Madison voters. While Parsley prevailed in Wards 2 and 3, Youngberg won Ward 1. Ward 1, as we know, is home of MyDakotaAddress.com, which houses over a thousand absentee RV voters at the mailbox office at 110 E. Center. And Ward 1 went for Youngberg by a margin of 183 votes.
Note to Democrats: in 2018, allocate a few thousand dollars to double hit 110 E. Center and South Dakota’s other RV mailboxes with some big, bright mailings.
That is a very interesting observation, Mr. H. Do you think that more of the people who live at MyDakotaAddress.com who voted on the district 8 election are conservatives who would follow Mr. Youngberg than are liberals who would follow Mr. Parsley, or was it just random picking that made that final decision since these people driving around the country and never visiting Madison could hardly be expected to have met or know these gentlemen.
Perhaps this is a reason why we should only allow people who live in their cars and do not have a permanent physical address with US postal delivery to it to vote in just the federal parts of elections and not the state or local parts. I was thinking you once advocated for something like that. Although I think you advocated that people who live in their cars should not get to vote at all.
I meet and talk to these RV voters in RV parks and campgrounds. They do vote and I predict vote mostly R.
I also promote Madison (hear this Greater Madison Area C of C) as a home base because your RV insurance is based on your home base and having lived in Pennington and Minnehaha counties I know that vehicle insurance is less expensive in Lake County. I would expect Hanson County, the other RV mailbox, could be even better.
Scott Parsley’s loss is very troubling -he was enormously fair and effective and truly represented his entire district. What a loss not only for Democrats, but his district and the state.
Mr. Sweet, I have no evidence of talking with people in camping grounds such as you do, but I have often suspected that more of the drivers of those behemoth buses in which they sleep and haul their other vehicles were registered as Republicans because they are retired and driving around with millions of dollars of hardware.
I suppose we have to let them vote somewhere so if the desire is to suppress these voters then the best option would be to outlaw the businesses and drive them to Iowa or some other state.
In My opinion RVer’s are very selfish people. Living in a community means becoming involved in it. Supporting your school and town should be part of living in a town.
I believe Pennington County has had some issues with the mobile vote. Seems like I recall it was a wheel tax…I do know since I am a member of Hart Ranch in the Hills that full time rv’ers that use Hart Ranch as their address cannot get a library card. I find that kind of funny.
I would agree that the full timer is much more apt to be R, and to vote all R.
So, Mr. Pauli, do you think it would be wise to pass a law through the legislatures that says people who “live” at Hart Ranch can only vote on federal positions and no local or state things, such as the wheel tax that was repealed in the county of Pennington that now makes the county kick in money so Aberdeen can build bridges, and on no state things like Mr. Russell to go to Pierre and lead things, or the sales tax they want to impose now on shoppers in rural Pennington county.
Fat Princess Grudz … Do you think the USA Constitution allows removing the rights of a voter in any regard? No, it doesn’t. But you keep trying to isolate, segregate and dissipate the rights of people and we’ll keep slapping your fat fingers.
It was Mr. H who wanted to suppress the voters in RVs. I think everybody should live in RVs and roam the land, happy and free. And mostly stay the hell out of South Dakota. RVs can carry a lot of whacky weed from state to state, you know.
Suppressing the vote: https://dakotafreepress.com/2016/01/10/dfp-bill-2-clarifying-voting-residence-in-south-dakota/
Not suppressing the vote: old grudznick wants all RVers to register in South Dakota, since several of you have confirmed these fellows are generally registered Republicans.
Wasn’t it Sturgis that had problems with RV votes — not full time South Dakota residents — throwing the vote so their measly wheel tax vote cost actual residents tax dollars for projects?
Ms. Harrington-Moore, the fellows from Buffalo Chip were trying to create their own community to provide tax benefits to a private benefactor. Pennington County wheel tax was overturned mostly on the backs of local whackos with a few RV voters. Buffalo Chip is in Meade County. Sturgis is in Meade county. Meade county has a lot of whackos on their county commission too so it is easy to confuse the two.
I am not promoting suppression of voters, I am Just stating what appears to me to be obvious. Scott Parsley’s loss is unexplainable, as was Jeff Nelson’s, except that they were Democrats. They are both really fair minded people and would vote the state and country before the party.
Youngberg is from Dells & was a less than stellar student, a trouble maker & vandal. Maybe he’s matured, but I rather doubt it.
I am puzzled greatly on the district’s election of Youngberg. The only thing he ran on was the (R) behind his name, and that is sad. No education and no experience.
Shelly, when we were young and stupid, we were young and stupid. Youngberg’s patron Russ Olson came to office with a lengthy rap sheet from his youth, and he was… fine… right?
Like Super Sweet, I seek no voter suppression. But I recommend Democrats work on educating those voters.
Perhaps a new “virtual state” could be created for all RV traveler nation-wide, vs. their being assigned to a real state? How about we call it – the District of Columbia – or something like that. Then they could be governed by congress without having a vote as to who those congress critters are.
How about a USA license plate, a fixed taxation schedule and a mail in ballot?
I’m intrigued by the virtual state suggestion. But if we can’t do that, how about we invite all those disenfranchised DC residents to register for South Dakota residency so they can elect two Senators and a voting Representative?
Scott Parsley is a very fair man, if he didn’t change his voting at all but run as a Republican he would have easily won this election. Not only does his district loose, but the whole state loses. Scott Parsley should be back in Pierre.
I meet those RV mail box holders every year down south, the first question always is “are you really from SD?” They hold the PO box address to get cheap license plates for their RVs and insurance and when asked when votes? A lot of them do, which shouldn’t be allowed as they have no physical address just a PO box.
Reject Pat Powers!! Just so Patty won’t get an extra pfennig from anyone logging on to his pissant political disquisition, he says Scott Parsley lost because he’s lazy and an egotist who sent out only vanity advertising.
Liar Liar Liar … the underlying message of 90% of Pat Powers Posts is that even the weakest and least qualified candidate can win if they purchase his overpriced, deceptive, lying campaign brochures and postcards. That folks, is where much of the corruption originates in South Dakota. When you lie to get elected, it’s a mandate to lie during your elected duties.
[Powers has no expertise; he’s coasting on default R voters.]
T, I understand that impulse—you don’t really live here, so you can’t vote here—but as commenters have noted before, we can’t really deny an American citizen the right to vote just because that American citizen chooses to live on the road. Likewise, we don’t disenfrachise citizens who work and live overseas. They still get to claim some homebase stateside where they cast their ballots.
But I wonder: would it be at all Constitutional to allow an RV voter to vote in Presidential and Congressional elections but to impose stricter residency requirements to vote in state, Legislative, county, and local races?
C.H
Apologies I should have clarified, yes it is unconstitutional to restrict voting of any kind, but I’m talking about the RV’ers who actually have residence in other states that use SD for less expensive license plates tax and insurance. In addition there are some actual physically addresses used for DL as well where people are at these homes 2 months out of the year (license plates and state income tax avoidance in their true state, but that’s another topic) if even that and have their mail forwarded to their out of state permanent address. So out of couriosity we ask these SD license people when we are in AZ or FL how does one do this? Small town PO boxes can be rented over the phone, then mail is forwarded to a permanent address where they actually live. The actually percentage of a “rubber neck”(full time RV’ers calling their RV home)
Actually calling their home state SD my bet would be low. The PO box scenarios are big business for SD. RV’ers we met with SD plates are not living out of their RV’s year round, they own middle to upper class homes some place else and only use SD to save money….
The RV crowd skews more than local elections: my understanding is that the reason we have a brand spanking new national chain auto parts store on Washington is because of the number of automobiles registered in Lake County. Sadly, whoever saw the numbers and went Whoopee! had no idea that at least 2,000 of them belong to RVers who are never here. Let’s just say that the parking lot is empty most of the time.
Good point Eve. There’s no way a town the size of Madison (even with the inflated numbers on their population count signs on the edge of the city) can support four auto parts stores; at least not in my estimation. But, I digress. Addressing Pat Powers’ claim that Scott Parsley is a lazy egotist, who sent out only vanity advertising. My response to that claim is: BS! Scott is one of the hardest working legislators in Pierre, or was. I campaigned for Scott both in 2014 and 2016. He was devoted to ALL his constituents, not just democratic voters. He’s an intelligent articulate voice for district 8 and all of South Dakota. I believe the fact that Youngberg and our esteemed governor both hail from the city of Dell Rapids, along with John Thune’s ringing endorsement and monetary support from his own bloated war chest helped the inexperienced new senator get elected. That, and the fact that he had an “R” rather than a “D” in front of his name on the ballot. I’m constantly amazed how South Dakotans continue to vote against their own best interests.
Jordan does a great job!
Tell us more, Jacob, about the “job” Youngberg has done to earn your praise.