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SOS Monae Johnson Still Accepting Email Requests for Really Old Executive Orders

Last updated on 2023-04-15

Seth Tupper reported last week that Secretary of State Monae Johnson decided in January to stop accepting e-mail requests for public records.

Evidently that decision is not universal. While checking the list of executive orders Governor Kristi Noem has issued (three so far this year, with her NRA stunt order coming up this afternoon; 12 in 2022, 16 in 2021, 34 in 2020, 29 in 2019), I notice the Secretary of State offers an email link to request executive orders from prior years:

South Dakota Secretary of State, Executive Orders, screen cap 2023.04.14, with annotation to show functioning link to request past orders by email.
South Dakota Secretary of State, Executive Orders, screen cap 2023.04.14, with annotation to show functioning link to request past orders by email.

It appears you really only need to request executive orders by email if you are looking for executive orders from 1960 or earlier. I find the earliest EO archived online is Executive Order 1961-01, in which Governor Archie Gubbrud ordered the Secretary of Agriculture to make plans for “emergency economic stabilization, including consumer rationing, price control and rent control” in case of an attack on the United States.*

But it is nice to know that Secretary Johnson recognizes that sometimes, email really is writing… as long as we aren’t requesting current records that might get the current boss in hot water.

*Update 2023.04.15 05:49 CDT: When I accessed the SOS Executive Order archive Friday morning, the system displayed pages 2 and 3 of EO 1961-01 giving me the blue question mark on the images for page 1, leaving me unable to determine which Secretary was being charged with planning for the apocalypse. This morning, the SOS EO archive produces page 1 but fails to retrieve pages 2 and 3. After a few refreshes, page 2 returns, then page 3, but never all three pages on the same load.

15 Comments

  1. 96Tears

    Does this mean the 21st Century is coming to Pierre?

  2. But Cory, Kristi Noem is just a close personal friend and who’s that Grubbored guy anyways, Archie? Email is just too complicated for Monae. She’s a Johnson, you’ve got to spend your dimes to get her time.
    A trip to Pierre is always fun with all the sightseeing you can do and you can look to your hearts content, with or without her. The documents are still within your purview of course. Maybe not hers.
    If you take 47 and 34 you’ll have some stunning views along the way. If your coming from the north you take 83 and meet a member for some golf at Agar. It’s a trip worth taking. Highway 14 is just boring to be Blunt about it. Highmore is a nice stop but thats a sentimental journey.

  3. Arlo Blundt

    Well…you get what you vote for. We can’t say Monae tried to deceive the voters. She was up front about her incompetence. And Mark is right…34 is a great drive….fill up your tank in Woonsocket…also a great place for lunch.

  4. grudznick

    Woonsocket is ok, but fill up your tank in Wessington Springs, and save your appetite for the Lode Star. That’s where Big Things Happen.

  5. Arlo Blundt

    Grudz–Big Things have never happened in Wessington Springs. Overgodders with no sense of humor live in Wessington Springs. It was a dry town for 100 years.

  6. grudznick

    Big Things Happen is the ™ phrase for the Lode Star, Mr. Blundt. If you visit, tell them grudznick sent you and you’ll get a voucher for a few bucks off your breakfast.

  7. Anybody know a blog in South Dakota that covers the state from a Republican perspective?

  8. grudznick

    Lar, do you remember that time we were sitting at the Outlaw Bar and our good friend Bob walked in, his hat tipped jauntily at a rakish angle, and he sauntered up with that usual scowl and said:

    I’m gonna run for Secretary of State

    and then he actually bought a round for the 6 of us in the joint? Well, grudznick, for one, remains disappointed. Our good friend could fix this sloppy work Ms. Monae is bringing back from the EG (i.e. Era of Gant.)

  9. Bob Newland

    I don’t think I’d want to eat anywhere the establishment would give me a discount because you said so, grudznutz.

  10. Bob Newland

    Where is the Outlaw Bar?

  11. grudznick

    I think what grudznick’s good friend Bob meant to say is

    Which Outlaw Bar? I jauntily tip my hat at a rakish angle and buy rounds at many.

  12. All Mammal

    I think that’s the bar with the etchings on the stall walls in the laboratory which read,
    “Just sitting here at a loss
    trying to sht out taco sauce”
    I didn’t know you were a poet, Mr. G.

  13. And we used to think blowing stop signs, running over people in the ditch, people committing suicide with 5-foot branches and running campaign consulting businesses from the Capital was bad. Well it kind of was. Now Monae.

  14. Jenny

    Only in South Dakota would you have a pistol permit heading on the SOS website. Bizarre but not surprising. Also, isn’t there online voter registration on the SD SOS website like there is in MN?
    Check out MNs easy and convenient online voter registration below. This is how I registered to vote when I came to MN over 20 years ago. It was fast and efficient.
    https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/register-to-vote/

    Online voter registration would just be too easy to get poor indigenous people to registered to vote now wouldn’t it, SD. In MN, we want everyone to vote. On election day here I always see people in the registration line, as you can register to vote on election day in MN. No wonder MN is always tops in the nation for voter turnout! Civic engagement is big here.

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