Audit closes books on election

HURON South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson was present at Tuesday mornings election audit for Beadle County. Five community members spent five hours hand-counting ballots to verify the Nov. 5 election results for the county.

Legislation passed in Pierre in 2023 initiated a post-election audit process after statewide elections. A precinct with at least five percent of total ballots cast in the county had to be selected as well as two election races or ballot measures to count by hand. At the canvass of the election on Nov. 7, the Beadle County Commission randomly chose the Wolsey precinct to count and chose the State Supreme Court election and Amendment G to be the specific line items that were counted.

After verifying the overall ballot count was accurate for the precinct, the audit board divided into two readers to read the results from each ballot, two recorded to track information from the readers and one observer to verify that the ballot results being reported were read and recorded accurately.

Johnson stated that Beadle Countys count was the sixth post-election audit that she had attended around the state, and she planned to finish her day by attending the count in Hand County Tuesday afternoon.

Overall, she reports the audits have done what they were expected to do. Every one so far has come back with 100% (count matching numbers from the machine for the precinct), which should give South Dakota voters reassurance that our elections are being run right, Johnson expressed, adding that the work of community members like the audit board and the work of auditors around the state is the primary reason that elections in the state run so smoothly.

Beadle County Auditor Jill Hanson walked through the process on a slideshow before the audit began and then remained present to provide writing utensils, legal pads, and other items that the board needed to complete the task.

This audit is the first national election since the post-election audit bill was passed. The first election throughout the state to run the audit was the June primary this year.