Ballot snafu stalls early voting

BROOKINGS — County Auditors offices around the state announced that early voting will be delayed this year, and Brookings County was no exception.

Thanks to a quirk in the calendar and action by last session’s state legislature, the timing between petition deadlines for candidates and printing deadlines for ballots simply became impossible.

According to a release by the Brookings County Finance Office released April 17:

“The Brookings County Finance Office has not yet received the ballots for the June 2, 2026, Primary Election. The Secretary of State’s Office is still in the process of proofing ballots for all counties statewide. Absentee voting, scheduled to begin Friday, April 17th, may be delayed until ballots arrive.

Please call the Finance Office at 605-696-8250 before coming to vote to inquire about ballot status.”

Election officials across the state — including locally — described the process as “chaos.”

The problem was pointed out to state legislators during the last session, but the legislature decided not to amend the process.

According to state law, to earn a place on the ballot, statewide candidates representing a political party had to gather the required number of petition signatures from registered South Dakota voters and file them by the last Tuesday in March. But March of 2026 was different — it contained five Tuesdays — the last one on March 31. That left just 17 days before the beginning of early voting for the review and certification of petitions and the printing of ballots.

Early and absentee voting — again, as required by state law — must begin no later than 46 days before the election, and ballots must be printed 48 days before.

With the election scheduled for June 2, that math simply doesn’t work.

Legislators did change the legal deadline for the filing of nominating petitions to the third Tuesday in March, but did not append an emergency clause to make it effective immediately. The law therefore won’t take effect until July 1, after the June 2 primary.

The upshot of that is the problem won’t happen again — but it is happening this year. According to contemporaneous published reports, some legislators were loathe to change the deadline this year because some petitions were already circulating.

Last Thursday, the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office provided guidance suggesting counties begin the early voting process with sample ballots — but county officials all rejected this approach, according to South Dakota Searchlight, citing state law that says sample ballots may only be used if other ballots are exhausted.

The rest of the statement from the Brookings County Finance office reads as follows:

“To receive a ballot by mail, fill out and print an Absentee Ballot Application, which can be found online at https://brookingscountysd.gov/287/

Absentee-Voting, or the form is also available at the Brookings County Finance Office, 520 3rd Street, Suite 100, Brookings, SD. The application must include a copy of your photo ID, which may be one of the following:

— South Dakota driver’s license or nondriver ID

— U.S. passport or other U.S. government-issued photo ID

— Military ID

— Current student ID from a South Dakota high school or college

— Tribal photo ID

“The completed form and copy of your ID must be mailed to the Brookings County Finance Office, 520 3rd Street, Suite 100, Brookings, SD 57006 or brought to the Finance Office. When ballots become available, one will be mailed to you.

“Brookings County will continue to work to safeguard your voting rights and guarantee that your vote is correctly processed.

“We will provide additional updates when ballots arrive.”

According to reporting by South Dakota Searchlight, most counties plan to pay for expedited and overnight shipping of the ballots when they are ready — which will cost counties hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Jenna Baker with the Brookings County Finance office said Brookings County would pay for expedited shipping of the ballots when they are available — which they usually do.

Last election that cost the county between $500-600 for the primary and another $500-600 for the general election in November.

For the June 2 election, local Democrats and independents have just one race on the ballot: Marcie Dierks or Kelsey Bowman for Brookings School District school board.

For Republicans, though, there are numerous contested primaries, including:

Justin McNeal and Mike Rounds for U.S. Senator; Marty Jackley or James Bialota for U.S. Rep.; Larry Rhoden, Jon Hansen, Dusty Johnson or Toby Doeden for governor; up to two of Roger DeGroot, Dennis Willert or Mellissa Heermann for District 7 State Rep.; Dave Biteler or Shawn Hostler for Brookings County Sheriff; and up to three of Diana Page, Susan Struwe, Roger DeGroot, Jeffrey Struwe and Seth Hansen for delegates to the state Republican convention.

Key dates for the rest of the election cycle in South Dakota are:

May 18: Deadline to register or change your registration for the primary

June 2: Primary election (polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time)

Sept. 18: General election absentee voting begins

Oct. 19: Deadline to register or change your registration for the general election

Nov. 3: General election (polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time)

South Dakota Searchlight and South Dakota News Watch contributed to this report.

Linehan is the Beacon’s managing editor and welcomes story tips and comments at BrookingsBeacon@gmail.com