The latest monthly voter registration report from Secretary of State Shantel Krebs provides objective data against the existence of any “Blue Wave” in South Dakota.
Despite offering a likable and campaign-financially muscular gubernatorial nominee, despite filling more Legislative candidate slots than they have since before our Palinesque descent into Tea Party Trumpism, the South Dakota Democratic Party’s official share of registered voters continues to decline. We dropped below 30% of the electorate in April; as of Tuesday, October 2, we Democrats make up only 29.17% of South Dakota’s electorate. The Democratic share has slid unabated since November 2009. Even the election of a complete moron and jerk by Republicans as leader of the free world has not changed Democrats’ downward registration trajectory in South Dakota.
Republicans are holding steady above 47% of the electorate. Independents are above 23% of the electorate.
The actual Democratic count has ticked up since July, with 802 new Dems causing a minor swelling of 0.5%. But there was greater redness in the 2,465 new Republicans registrants since July (1% growth). I don’t know what color independents are, but their ranks grew 2.2% by 2,695 new independents.
That small Dem perk-up leaves us with plenty of voters to recapture. by any other recent measure, the Democratic Party remains in registrant decline. We have 1.76% fewer members than we did at the beginning of 2018, 3.30% fewer than we had one year ago, 7.95% fewer than we had the morning that America lost its mind and elected Donald Trump, and 23.76% fewer than we had at our highest point of registration pre-Tea Party in July 2009.
Sheldon Osborn’s weekly invitation to Drinking Liberally (tonight, 5 p.m., 41 Taphouse in Sioux Falls) reminds us that the South Dakota Democratic Party got $50K from the Democratic National Committee last May to help register American Indians voters. Osborn checks the numbers and finds a lack of bang for those bucks:
Democratic voter registration declined by 9 in Buffalo County (622 in May, 613 in October), by 8 in Dewey County (2006 in May, 1998 in October), by 30 in Moody County (1593 in May, 1563 in October) and by 48 in Roberts County (3099 in May, 3051 in October). Democratic voter registration did increase by 39 in Oglala Lakota County (5344 in May, 5383 in October) and by 19 in Todd County (2908 in May, 2927 in October). Overall, in these six counties Democratic voter registration declined by 37. One has to wonder how effectively [SDDP chair] Ann Tornberg and the SDDP spent the $50,000.00 [Sheldon Osborn, e-mail to Drinking Liberally Sioux Falls followers, 2018.10.05].
Democrats worth their salt are too busy trying to win an election to bother sorting out Osborn’s closing wonder for another 32 days. Right now Democrats should be focusing on answering one question from 538,698 registered voters: why should we cast our votes for you? How voters respond to our responses on November 6 will tell us a lot about how to answer Osborn’s question and who gets to answer that question with action.
The only reason I have for being a registered Independent is my personal safety.
Four people in my family switched form Dem to Rep in order to vote for Sheriff in our county. We haven’t gotten around to switching back because we can vote for anyone in the general. I think we will get that done soon, but it just hasn’t be a priority.
Still the economy stupid, as it drifts downward. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that the economy created 134,000 seasonally adjusted new jobs in September. That’s the smallest gain since September 2017. The headline unemployment rate fell to 3.7 percent, the lowest level in 49 years. Of the total, 121,000 jobs were created in the private sector, 13,000 in the public sector. A gauge of both unemployment and underemployment rose 0.1 point to 7.5 percent.
The September results were 25 percent below what economists had forecast.
We can expect Donald Trump to again lie about how much faster jobs are supposedly growing under his regime than they did under President Barack Obama. It should therefore be noted that in the final 20 months of Obama’s presidency, the average monthly job increase was 208,000. Under Trump, the monthly average over the 20 months of his term has been 190,000.” Only in trump land could you take 25 percent decrease and paint some lipstick on that sow, and call it fantastic.
Ag producers got hit with the tremendous decrease in their incomes and now, the whole country suffers the start of the downward trend. Have you had enough yet?
Vote Democratic. Put Tim Bjorkman in over Dirty Johnson, Put Billie Sutton in over NOem… Hey District 3, send in a sweeper like Cory to help clean out Pierre with Governor Sutton.
There is no reason to register as a democrat when there are no contested primaries. People who are politically active often register republican so that they can vote in meaningful primaries. I know quite a few people who fit this description.
Kathy, I have to ask: would registering as a Democrat really imperil your safety? I have been on of the most openly, publicly liberal Democrats in South Dakota for the past decade. I have never felt a genuine threat to m physical safety due to that status (with the arguable exception of the brief effort of Ron Branstner’s hypnotized rage followers trying to bully me at Aberdeen’s inaugural racist Trumpist rally in August 2016).
Hank, I understand your priorities, and I appreciate your willingness to keep switching back on your radar. (More important, of course, is your willingness to vote for Billie and the rest of our team: do it!)
But the fact that you switched registration in the first place is another sign of my party’s failure to give you good reason to stay registered with our party, to make Democratic registration valuable and actionable.
Kyle hits that point on the head.
Great economic point, Jerry. We Democrats need to explain that loudly and clearly.
“complete moron and jerk by Republicans as leader of the free world”
He’s kept “moron and jerk” his entire life and is in no danger of losing that title. However, Pootie’s Puppet surrendered the leadership to the EU. Now he’s just the Petulant Lying Ineffective Bully (moron and jerk) of the Free World.
I argue that, although registered Democratic numbers matter for the reasons Cory described, they’re not defining in the general election, especially this one. From what I’ve read and heard, Sutton has a good grip on the Independent voters and many GOPers too. I really hope that trickles down* to the other statewide offices, especially Seiler and Bjorkman.
(*Not Pootiepublicans’ “trickle down.” I mean the real thing, enough votes for Seiler and Bjorkman to win. And then the Fredericksons and Matson and Cool.)
Here is the kind of wave I know is coming to US politics:
https://www.facebook.com/541548164/posts/10156128489753165/
We’re coming for you, Pootiepublicans. 😈😈😈
I don’t recall seeing any outreach efforts on Cheyenne River. But I recall the job description for the person they wanted to hire for their 50k and there were a lot of structural problems in the tasks they were given. More than one person noted that the job duties as described were not feasible, and there were other effective ways to accomplish those goals with that amount of money, but the Democratic party didn’t ask anyone out here, as far as I can tell. Years ago I tried to reach out to the Democrats by signing up as a volunteer on their website but was never contacted by anyone. The ideas and people are out here, but somebody in the party has to open the door.
Hey, Debbo! I couldn’t open that link—is it a private group?
I just find it, frankly, rather intriguing that the number of democrat voters continues to decline.
As fast as Sioux Falls is growing the people are just prominently registering republican there?
What are Minnehahas numbers? It would interesting to see what kind of ground game they have there. Is there a minority outreach there?
I know southdakotans dislike the emphasis on Sioux Falls all the time but that is where the Dems are going to find their strength in numbers.
Again, I hope there is a minority outreach there. In MN, that has been a part of the DFLs platform for years.
It’s an image, a poster I have downloaded, but don’t know how to transfer it here or copy words only. Crap!
Okay, I’m not sure why this worked when the other didn’t. Try this:
https://goo.gl/5Nsd6F
I have a question for the Secretary of State office. Why has there been an even year purge of voters in 2018?
According to current data there are 538,698 registered voters.
In an official file from post purge October 2017 there were 579410 registered voters.
Why did the SD SOS office purge 49,712 voters in a non purge year?
It is 2018. I think that is an even number. Heck, I didn’t even know they did any purges. . .
I think huffpo twitter confirms KAV confirmed for SCOTUS. Impeachment for perjury requires majority vote of house.
Ok, He’s in. Your freedom is preserved for a while longer.
This is not the end. We women and our allies are still coming for the hateful Pootiepublicans. We are implacable. You have no idea the rage . . . . .
Nope, not the end at all. This just gets us closer to assuring that :all” people are equal under the law based upon the Constitution.
As far as “rage” goes, why? Do you not believe we are all equal under the law? Do you not see a law equally applied makes us a equal? I know, given an proper understanding, you would also agree the best protection of all of our rights is the application of the Constitution equally for all. No reason for “rage”. You should be cheering.
Nazis won, too, for awhile until good people realized how slimy Nazi wingnuts were and defeated them at every turn. Have yer widdle bictory party , if you can stand the stench and I know you can. When you run with skunks you don’t get to smell like Coty Wild musk.
Keep talking IS, convincing yourself. You have No Idea. 🙂
Dammit, autocorrect sometimes likes to change “OS” to “IS.” Sorry.
But I’m not “IS sorry”. I ain’ts sorry whats so ever.
Debbo, who’s there idiot with the posts above yours marked “iwacko”?
Keep reassuring yourself OS. I think that’s very good.
Ms Frederickson: Krebs purged almost 50,000 voters before 2018 election. Wow
Bruce, I’m confused. The October 2017 voter registration report showed 533,874 active voters and 46,511 inactive voters. The October 2018 report shows 538,698 active voters and 56,153 inactive. Where are the 49,712 to whom you refer?