In Pierre, South Dakota, the South Dakota Supreme Court has dismissed an attempt to exclude more than 100 absentee ballots that were initially rejected but later counted in the state’s June election. The leader of a conservative election group and an unsuccessful Republican legislative candidate had requested last month for the top election official in Minnehaha County, which is home to Sioux Falls, to remove the 132 ballots from the unofficial vote count totals and to review registered voters in two precincts. However, the court denied their request on Friday, upholding the inclusion of the ballots in question following a recount.
During June’s election, Jessica Pollema, the President of South Dakota Canvassing, contested ballots in two precincts, claiming that voter registration forms were incomplete or contained incorrect addresses. One precinct board rejected her challenge, while the other, situated in a legislative district represented by Democrats, dismissed 132 out of the 164 challenged ballots.
The challenge caught the attention of Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s office, which informed a county official that the challenged items did not comply with state law regulations.
