ELECTION RESULTS
Results in the South Dakota primary election were delayed for nearly two hours Tuesday night, but when results were posted, U.S. Representative Kristi Noem held a comfortable lead over Attorney General Marty Jackley in the race for the Republican nominee for Governor.
At the same time, Dusty Johnson, former PUC commissioner and chief of staff for Governor Dennis Daugaard held a 2-1 advantage over both of his opponents in the race for the Republican nominee for the U.S. House seat being vacated by Noem.
Results were delayed Tuesday evening, after loss of connectivity with electronic poll books used to verify voters were in the correct precinct, in both Pennington and Hughes Counties, forced voting hours to be extended.
With 72 percent - 493 of the state’s 685 precincts reporting - Noem held a 58 percent to 42 percent advantage, or nearly 10,000 votes.
Johnson had 48 percent of the counted ballots, while current Secretary of State Shantel Krebs was at 28 percent and current State Senator Neal Tapio had 24 percent.
The only other measure with statewide notice, was a special election on an amended version of the Marsy’s Law, which was originally passed by voters in 2016. With the same 68.32 percent of precincts reporting, the Yes votes held a 4-1 advantage over the No votes.
Results were delayed due to issues with electronic poll books in both Hughes and Pennington Counties. The electronic poll books were being used to confirm that voters were at the correct precinct, but connectivity issues came up and required that polls in certain precincts in those counties remain open later to allow people to cast ballots.
As no results are released until all precincts are closed, those results were unavailable until the voting in Pennington County closed at 9:45 CDT, 8:45 in the Mountain time zone.
Noem will face Democrat legislator Billie Sutton in the general election on Nov. 6, while Johnson will take on Democratic retired judge Tim Bjorkman in the general election.
Results are unofficial until a canvass of the results takes place later this week.
PHOTO BY CURT NETTINGA/PLAINSMAN
Turnout was low in Tuesday’s primary election at Huron Arena.
