KELO-TV finds three voters who changed their party affiliation to vote in the Rhoden/Doeden gubernatorial runoff:
But there’s another deadline that’s even sooner- voters have until July 13th to change their registration to Republican if they want to vote in the runoff.
“It’s pretty simple,” said Elaina Jones, who came to change her voter registration and absentee vote. “I mean, you walk up to the counter and go, ‘I’m here to change my registration, and then I’d like to vote.’”
Even for voters who don’t typically vote absentee, doing so while they’re already at the auditor’s office was the easier choice.
“I go in to vote normally,” said Grace Wilson, a voter from Sioux Falls who came to change her registration and voted. “This one I just made the change, and she offered the absentee.”
These voters say it was important for them to have a say in this election, despite not normally being registered as Republicans.
“I think the governor’s race is really important,” said Wilson. “And I’m not a big fan of the negative nature of one of the candidates, so I wanted to make sure I voted on this one.”
“It seems likely that, you know, a Republican would win this election,” said Henry Jones, who also changed his registration to vote. “So, we want to have a vote in what Republican is going to be in the general election” [Sydney Hoier, “Voters Change Registration Ahead of Runoff,” KELO-TV, 2026.07.09].
The state’s voter registration numbers suggests thousands more South Dakotans have seen the runoff as reason to register as Republicans. Since June 1, the number of registered Democrats has declined by 1,920, and the number of registered independents has declined by 1,259. Over the last six weeks, the number of Republican voters has risen by 5,936.
Total voter registration is still down after the Secretary of State’s furious scrubbing of RV voters from the rolls, but since the nadir in total registration on March 2, primary and runoff excitement have driven a net increase of 6,046 registered voters. Net growth since March in Republican registration has been 10,390. Over the same four-month period, Democrats have lost 3,231 voters and indies have lost 1,182.
The increase in voter registration indicates that KELO-TV’s unsubstantiated thesis that voters are “fatigued” is bunk. So does this commentary from the party switchers they interview:
For Sioux Falls voters, this is the third election in the past two months. Despite voter fatigue, Elaina and Wilson both say it’s important for their voices to be heard.
“I feel like it doesn’t matter if I’m burnt out or not,” said Elaina. “I have a right to my voice. I’m going to use it.”
“That’s the say that we have. And it’s important to partake,” said Wilson [Hoier, 2026.07.09].
As Hoier said, if you want to vote in the July 28 runoff but aren’t registered Republican, you have until this coming Monday, July 13, to register.
Related Reading: South Dakota Searchlight finds the party-switchers include well-known former Democratic legislator Nancy Turbak Berry.
Republicans in name only. That’s the entire state. Everyone loves to believe they have created something from nothing. Nothing has changed.
As many readers are aware this interested party has been preaching monkey-wrenching the SDGOP for at least two decades.
Curious, however, that Democrats believe Mr. Rhoden would be easier to beat than Mr. Doeden.