Hey, you three Sioux Falls Democrats who forgot to vote—this one’s on you!
In Tuesday’s runoff election for Sioux Falls mayor, Republican Christine Erickson got two more votes than Democrat Jamie Smith. You can bet there will be a recount.
Concerns from officials about voter fatigue did not appear to play out. 38,733 Sioux Fallsians cast votes in the regular mayoral election on June 2 that winnowed the field from five candidates to two. Erickson and Smith split a combined 36,558 votes in Tuesday’s runoff, a 5.6% decline from the June 2 mayoral voter turnout. That’s a lot lower than the big double-digit-precentage declines we usually see in Congressional runoff elections. Unlike the primary, this runoff wasn’t combined with any marquee primaries for Governor or Legislature, so a a municipal runoff drawing 94.4% as much voter participation on its own as the initial vote three weeks ago suggests forcing cities to hold their elections on the same day as statewide primaries or generals doesn’t guarantee big increases in voter turnout. Overall turnout in Sioux Falls dropped from 25.5% to 24.1%, indicating the problem is less voter fatigue and more voter disinterest.
The city posts Erickson’s and Smith’s percentages as 49.91%, as they are counting based on the total of 36,633 ballots received, which evidently includes 65 ballots that left the mayor line blank, illegally wrote in another name, or otherwise fouled their mayoral vote. The actual percentages are 50.003% for Erickson and 49.997% for Smith.
Smith gobbled up a lot more the also-rans votes than did Erickson. On June 2, Erickson won 37.3% of the vote, followed by Smith at 28.3%. Erickson won 3,873 more votes in the runoff than in the primary, an increase of 26.9%. Smith won 7,319 more votes, a primary-to-runoff boost of 66.8%. If we assume that the 5.6% turnout decline was equal among supporters of each of the five candidates in the June 2 election, then Tuesday’s results suggest that Smith won 63% of voters who preferred Greg Jamison, Joe Batcheller, or David Zokaites but were willing to show up for their second choice this week.
The city provides this summary of the official vote canvass and likely recount:
The Sioux Falls City Council will now convene as the official election canvass board to declare the official results for this election at a special meeting on Friday, June 26, 2026, at 8 a.m. at Carnegie Town Hall, 235 W. 10th St. Following the official canvass of the election, certificates of election will be issued to the candidates who have been declared the winner by the official canvass.
Due to the unprecedented two-vote margin of victory in the mayoral runoff, a petition for a recount is likely to occur for that office. Once such a petition is filed, the law requires a recount board to be appointed to conduct the recount process as expeditiously as reasonably possible until completed. The recount board would consist of one person chosen by each candidate then a third member would be chosen by mutual agreement of both candidates. Once the recount board has completed their work, they will submit a certification of their recount result to the official canvass board. If the results of the election change, then a new certificate of election would be issued to the mayoral candidate who is declared the winner. By law, Mayor Paul TenHaken will continue serving as mayor until a successor has been duly elected and taken office [City of Sioux Falls, “2026 Runoff Election Update, Next Steps,” 2026.06.24].
Three counters, 36,633 ballots, and a two-vote margin to test: how would you like to be on that recount board?
I volunteer.
Municipal elections, as with school board and judicial races, are nonpartisan and should be strictly campaigned with zero partisan taint or slant. I think the candidates ran mostly on issues and qualifications, though some sought to pump up partisan voting.
The big issue, in my mind, is who is going to listen to citizens versus who is going to listen to the elites. That has always been the issue is Sioux Falls, It’s not that the elites don’t deserve to be heard, but they have too much control over what gets done in the city. In my mind Smith had a far better approach to transparency and citizen concerns.
So many people and so few care!
East River Libertarians are saying on Faceberg that there weren’t any candidates for Sioux Falls mayor that they or unaffiliated voters could support.
Hear, hear. Donald Pay
Late ballot distribution may have affected the outcome, particularly given Smith’s stronger performance among absentee voters. I received my ballot on Saturday and did not trust that it would arrive by mail before the deadline, so I delivered it directly to the auditor’s office. Given Smith’s significant advantage among absentee voters, I wonder how many completed ballots were mailed promptly by voters but delayed by the postal service and received too late to be counted.
My dad was in the hospital and didn’t vote. My mom liked Jamie Smith, but was concerned he was too nice for some reason. Dagnabit.
Erika and I served as election workers on Tuesday. A number of folks came in intending to vote in the Republican gubernatorial primary. (That’s July 28th.) That might be one reason 61 voters cast ballots but left the Mayoral election choice blank. I suspect this also pushed up turnout. Last week at the court house one could vote for both. There’s a report that some (75) voters were allowed to vote Monday, June 15th not only for the Republican Gubernatorial primary, but also illegally (a day early) in the Municipal run off election. If this is true, this significantly gains the outcome by allowing 75 Republicans to vote early in the municipal election. I was in the courthouse to work the election audit on the 15th. I asked if I could vote in the city election and was told no. We came back on Thursday instead.
The state requires additional time to cast absentee ballots. The city does not. The legislature should fix that. Ranked choice voting would have allowed us to skip the expense of the run off election entirely, but the legislature made that illegal. They know what’s good for us, ya know?
gains = taints
Reynold, would those votes cast on June 15th be thrown out in a recount? Or would Smith have to go to court to throw them out? Can we track those ballots? Are they marked by date?
Hi Cory!
It seems immoral to try to throw out those votes. John Q Public submitted a vote for mayor on an official ballot at the courthouse as directed by the election staff. Having done so, he certainly didn’t come back a day or two later to submit another vote. Thus to throw his vote out means he was deceived into thinking he participated only to be disenfranchised due to no fault of his own.
Kind regards,
David
PS I voted by mail in this election and wonder if my vote was counted… Received the ballot on Saturday, mailed it from the Harrisburg post office on Monday… But not sure if it got to the Minnehaha courthouse by Tuesday evening since USPS delivery speed has been erratic lately. The ballot stuffer was clear that it had to be there by Tuesday evening, so I knew I was taking a risk, but I think that any vote postmarked by election day also should be counted. Again, it feels immoral that my official vote done timely through the proper channels might have been thrown out through no fault of my own.
@David: In CO we receive e-mails and/or texts when our mail in ballots arrive at the PO, when they arrive at the county courthouse, and when they’re opened and counted. My ballot envelope has three bar codes and one QR code, so all the notification is done automatically by sorting machines.
Of course, CO mail in ballots can also be dropped off at ballot boxes or taken to the courthouse personally. Our choice …
Hi Porter!
I like that notification system a lot!
Kind regards,
David
PS … CO mail in primary ballots went out June 8. Primary election was June 30.
Here’s the site, if SD is interested. https://colorado.ballottrax.net
PS …. Another thing. When your mail in ballot reaches the courthouse all those running for office are notified that you’ve already voted and there’s no reason to spend money on sending you mailers.
That’s sounds heavenly!