Republican election denier and conspiracy theorist Heather Baxter is trying to downplay her moonbattery as she tries to save her s bid for Secretary of State. She’s not disavowing her bad ideas; she’s just pretending that the Secretary of State can’t do much damage:
Baxter told Searchlight she would focus on ensuring counties comply with state and federal requirements while giving county auditors greater local control over their elections.
“The biggest misconception is that I’m going to go in and just completely get rid of these machines when I don’t even have that in my wheelhouse of what I’m allowed to do,” Baxter said.
She said the Legislature, rather than the secretary of state alone, would have to implement such a change [Joshua Haiar, “Positions on Election Hand-Counting Split Candidates in South Dakota’s Secretary of State Race,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2026.10.14].
But she’s still stretching to justify her faith in hand-counting:
Baxter said she likes hand-counting because “you can see the voter intent.” She gave an example of a voter scribbling out a first choice and circling an intended one, and a hand-counter spotting the issue “where a machine didn’t read that” [Haiar, 2026.10.14].
(A) Baxter is cooking up a hypothetical, not giving a real example. When has hand-counting in a situation like this saved a vote, Heather? When has such an occurrence changed the outcome of an election?
(B) Baxter is using a fabricated anecdote to counter the empirical evidence that she cannot refute, study after study showing that machines count ballots more accurately than do humans.
Democratic candidate Terrence Davis doesn’t call Baxter a bullshit-spewing crank, but he does gently affirm his faith in counting votes based on what works, not on the dangerous fantasies of election-losers:
Davis said his clearest policy disagreement with Baxter is over her support for hand-counting and her criticism of electronic tabulation. He favors using technology alongside human oversight.
“With that being said, it doesn’t mean we cannot improve, but I think it should be a very gradual, measured approach,” Davis said.
Davis said Baxter has been pivoting away from her anti-election-machine stance, which he said is ultimately motivated by “the whole situation surrounding the 2020 election,” referring to President Donald Trump’s false claim that the election was fraudulent [Haiar, 2026.10.14].
Don’t let Heather Baxter fool you; she’s out to rig elections for her radical compadres with ideas that will make elections less reliable. Bring South Dakota back to mild-mannered and competent election management; send Terrence Davis to Pierre.
Looks like even rotund Earth hater Pat Powers agrees with Monae Johnson that Mrs. Baxter deserves to go down in flames.