Haakon County Auditor holds first town hall meeting -Initiated Measure 2024-1 seeking to abandon tabulators and use hand counting on June 4th ballot

Haakon County Auditor Stacy Pinney conducted a town hall meeting at the Bad River Senior Citizens Center on Tuesday, May 14, to answer questions that the community had about the voting process from start to finish. Attendance was light, but the citizens that were present at the event voiced their concerns to Auditor Pinney. 

Haakon County is one of three counties in South Dakota that will be voting in the June election to either stay with the vote counting tabulator or go back to hand counting ballots. The other two South Dakota counties voting on the issue are Gregory and Tripp.

There is one other local ballot item, the Haakon County Sheriff's position. 

Pinney started the meeting by explaining how to become a registered voter in Haakon County. She shared that she went to Philip High School and spoke to the seniors about how to register and vote. 

Pinney explained that when renewing a driver’s license, anyone that is of voting age must fill in the bubble to opt out of registering to vote, even if they are already registered. Often this is not explained, and if the bubble is not filled in it automatically registers said person to vote without their consent. Pinney stated that the auditors do not like this feature and are trying to get it removed from the driver's license renewal form. 

Auditor Pinney visited with the audience on how absentee ballots are sent out, and cast in. The Haakon County Auditor’s office is the only place that absentee votes can be counted. 

"More than anything, I want my county to be educated about how our elections run," said Pinney in a story published by South Dakota Searchlight. "Many county residents don't know there's a resolution board that handles votes cast aside by a tabulator when those votes need further study for voter intent," said Pinney. She added that some people aren't aware they can ask for a new ballot if they make a mistake.

Registered voters are no longer required to vote at the voting center in the area in which they reside. There are four voting centers within Haakon County: Philip, Midland, Milesville, and Deep Creek. She explained that the polling pads of the county are connected to one another via the cradle point internet system. The main function of the polling pads is to ensure that each registered voter is only allowed to vote once, no matter where they reside in the county, and place their vote. 

Nick Konst, a current county commissioner, explained that the reasoning behind the change was to simplify access to a voting center. He used the example of living on the southern side of Philip. He could vote in town at the courthouse, but those that resided on the other side of the road previously had to go to Midland to vote, due to precinct borders. Now, any resident of Haakon County can vote at any one of the four voting centers. 

According to Auditor Pinney, other expenses for the county include upkeep and maintenance of the machines that make voting accessible for those who are handicapped. One machine per polling location is required to give all registered voters the same access. Some community members that were at the meeting questioned why our county has seven of these machines, if only four are required, one for each polling place.

The initiated measure that is being voted on has come to the attention of citizens of Haakon County who wonder if the machines are a necessity, are they safe, or can they be hacked? Auditor Pinney assured the audience that the machines are secure.

The tabulator machine is used to tally votes by inserting the ballot into the machine. The ballot then comes out on the other side once it has been read. Pinney explained that she feels the machines make the process run smoother and faster. The ES&S company sets up and maintains the tabulators. After initial costs incurred in purchasing the tabulators, there is an annual upkeep cost.  The upkeep and maintenance is more expensive during a voting year than during a non-voting year. If the initiated measure passes, election workers will count the ballots by hand and the tabulators will be abandoned.  

 Currently Pinney expects that she will need 21 total workers for the primary election. This is broken down into seven groups of workers: four voting centers, an absentee board, a resolution board, and a tabulator board. These will range from 2-5 members each.  The expected cost to use the tabulator/optical scan and workers on voting day is approximately $3,400. Other expenses, including but not limited to, are voting center rental, printing, programming, poll pads, publishing notices, supplies, training/travel, and post-election audit. On average, with everything included, it could cost approximately $11,700. 

Pinney also broke down what she estimated the costs would look like if the ordinance passed, and all the votes were counted by hand. If the county hand counts, the auditor expects to have the same number of vote center workers at 21. The main difference is the number of people and hours she expects to need for the hand count board. Before adding the cost of the extra workers, she expects it to cost between $4,000 and $8,300. This amount would also vary due to the amount of time the election workers are needed. Pinney estimated that the 10-20 workers would cost anywhere from $750-$4,500 depending on the number of hours worked by the helpers and time needed to count votes. The other costs include but again are not limited to vote center rental, ballot printing, poll pads, publishing notices, supplies, and training/travel. With all expected costs included, Pinney projects hand counting the ballots to cost the county $11,965-$16,315. 

"The cost of election varies dramatically from year to year, and even race to race depending on how many races are being voted upon," stated Auditor Pinney.

A comment/question from the audience was, “Does human error while hand counting ballots outweigh the risks of trusting machines run from companies who are not local? 

A concern was expressed from the audience of counting only at a central counting center vs. at each vote center. "This removes one of the checks and balances with concern about security and accuracy of a tabulator supplied and maintained by a private third-party company that lacks accountability," said Mark Nelson. In a written account of the meeting, Mark Nelson wrote, "It was stated by myself and others in attendance, that it wasn't the local county officials that we mistrusted, but the ES&S, a private third party company that shrouds itself and its equipment in secrecy and refuses public transparency. Objections were made about the Haakon County States Attorney's fiscal note on the ballot as ‘being excessive, biased, misleading to the public, and the cost of hand counting was inflated."

The second of three town hall meetings was conducted on Tuesday, May 21. Watch next week’s Pioneer Review to read about any new information concerning the election process. You can also watch a live stream of the May 21st meeting in its entirety on the Ravellette Publications Facebook page.

The final town hall meeting before the primary election day will take place on Thursday, May 30 in the courtroom of the Haakon County Court House from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. You can watch a live stream of this meeting in its entirety on the Ravellette Publications Facebook page. This final town hall meeting is for the community to watch a pretest of the tabulator before the primary election takes place on Tuesday, June 4, 2024.