Coronavirus did not depress voter turnout in South Dakota’s primary. We had a higher percentage of voters cast ballots in this year’s primary, a contest with no hot statewide races, than in the four most recent statewide primaries:
I’d like to believe that the uptick in participation in a primary with less at stake than recent June elections signals a rally in patriotism and civic responsibility amidst threats to our democratic rights.
The highest turnout Tuesday came in Jones County, where 56.0% of the 691 registered voters came out to give Scyller Borglum her 11th highest percentage and Liz May her 13th highest. No other county turned out a majority of its voters; thirteen counties brought out over 40% of their voters:
| County | Registered Voters | Votes Cast | Turnout |
| Jones | 691 | 387 | 56.01 % |
| McPherson | 1,711 | 774 | 45.24 % |
| Haakon | 1,346 | 586 | 43.54 % |
| Sully (Vote Center) | 1,062 | 462 | 43.50 % |
| Marshall | 2,725 | 1,185 | 43.49 % |
| Hand | 2,256 | 966 | 42.82 % |
| Gregory | 2,843 | 1,205 | 42.38 % |
| Harding | 953 | 399 | 41.87 % |
| Stanley | 2,037 | 850 | 41.73 % |
| Douglas | 2,092 | 866 | 41.40 % |
| Campbell | 1,096 | 448 | 40.88 % |
| Fall River | 5,116 | 2,088 | 40.81 % |
| Potter (Vote Center) | 1,683 | 679 | 40.34 % |
| Corson | 2,276 | 911 | 40.03 % |
| Hughes (Vote Center) | 11,368 | 4,421 | 38.89 % |
| Jerauld | 1,221 | 471 | 38.57 % |
| Custer | 6,493 | 2,487 | 38.30 % |
| Lyman | 2,162 | 788 | 36.45 % |
| Mellette | 1,135 | 413 | 36.39 % |
| Tripp | 3,570 | 1,286 | 36.02 % |
| Bennett | 1,813 | 639 | 35.25 % |
| Clay | 7,481 | 2,630 | 35.16 % |
| Perkins | 2,090 | 734 | 35.12 % |
| Faulk | 1,518 | 531 | 34.98 % |
| Bon Homme | 3,812 | 1,332 | 34.94 % |
| Hyde (Vote Center) | 953 | 331 | 34.73 % |
| Meade | 17,323 | 5,739 | 33.13 % |
| Walworth | 3,742 | 1,232 | 32.92 % |
| Lawrence | 16,967 | 5,555 | 32.74 % |
| Butte | 6,023 | 1,930 | 32.04 % |
| Charles Mix | 5,289 | 1,667 | 31.52 % |
| Lake | 8,584 | 2,703 | 31.49 % |
| Yankton (Vote Center) | 13,880 | 4,149 | 29.89 % |
| Pennington | 75,232 | 22,377 | 29.74 % |
| Jackson | 1,794 | 528 | 29.43 % |
| Edmunds | 2,595 | 758 | 29.21 % |
| Kingsbury | 3,504 | 1,010 | 28.82 % |
| Roberts | 6,211 | 1,763 | 28.39 % |
| Davison | 11,246 | 3,153 | 28.04 % |
| Aurora | 1,771 | 486 | 27.44 % |
| Turner | 5,609 | 1,525 | 27.19 % |
| Brown (Vote Center) | 22,915 | 6,089 | 26.57 % |
| Day | 3,834 | 1,009 | 26.32 % |
| Beadle | 9,697 | 2,539 | 26.18 % |
| Lincoln | 37,930 | 9,925 | 26.17 % |
| Hutchinson | 5,024 | 1,311 | 26.09 % |
| Hamlin | 3,762 | 969 | 25.76 % |
| Codington | 16,584 | 4,270 | 25.75 % |
| Brule | 3,146 | 793 | 25.21 % |
| Todd | 4,483 | 1,118 | 24.94 % |
| Ziebach | 1,553 | 385 | 24.79 % |
| Spink | 4,073 | 995 | 24.43 % |
| Grant | 4,599 | 1,123 | 24.42 % |
| Minnehaha | 117,021 | 28,570 | 24.41 % |
| Brookings (Vote Center) | 18,479 | 4,490 | 24.30 % |
| Dewey | 3,283 | 796 | 24.25 % |
| Hanson | 3,181 | 771 | 24.24 % |
| Sanborn | 1,508 | 363 | 24.07 % |
| Miner | 1,522 | 353 | 23.19 % |
| McCook | 3,574 | 805 | 22.52 % |
| Moody | 4,056 | 856 | 21.10 % |
| Deuel | 2,862 | 599 | 20.93 % |
| Union | 11,668 | 2,319 | 19.87 % |
| Clark | 2,404 | 466 | 19.38 % |
| Buffalo | 882 | 168 | 19.05 % |
| Oglala Lakota | 7,586 | 792 | 10.44 % |
| TOTALS | 546,899 | 154,318 | 28.22 % |
Minnehaha County, where Auditor Bob Litz was once again slower than pretty much everyone else in the state in reporting final results, was in the bottom quintile for voter turnout, with only 24.41% of registered voters casting ballots.
Sanborn county-grdz identity? Ominous. I think a Sanborn was a 1878 Ft Laramie signer seated next to killer General Harney (who hung a dozen Irish militia to make a statement out front of parliament in Mexico City in that War.)
Here’s a proposal from 2 high school debaters to increase voter knowledge and information. They want the national forensic league, er, National Speech and Debate Association, to remove its firewall and live cast finals events.
A NSDA membership is outrageous, $200-350/year.
I’ll let the students explain.
https://www.change.org/p/the-speech-debate-community-petition-to-make-nsda-finals-videos-a-free-resource-for-educating-and-empowering-world?recruiter=860619903&recruited_by_id=748785a0-1e6c-11e8-b787-79f30f0a071d&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard
Leslie asks:
No, Sanborn never county-grdz identity.
Yep.