Simplified: Sioux Falls Simplified spoke face-to-face with dozens of legislative candidates in the metro area. All candidates were asked the same slate of questions, and you can find comprehensive coverage for each district at sfsimplified.com.

Don't know your legislative district? This interactive map can help you find it.

Here's what we asked:

What, if any, changes do you want to see the state make when it comes to absentee voting, voter registration, voter ID laws and elections in general? 

Here's what candidates said:

District 2

Adam Long: "The first one is we’ve seen a lot of people switching back and forth between Republicans and Democrats and changing their registration. I'm OK with people changing their registration – that's their right, but I do think that at some point it gets a little silly where they have the ability to change it so much they can vote throughout the election process and primaries.

  • "I would be for having some type of a law saying (voter registration) can be changed once a year."
  • Long said he's also "100% for" voter ID laws and wants to see a push for more in-person voting.

Manuel Luschas: "Overall I have to say, I think this time around Minnehaha County did really well. ... Is everything OK with how we do elections? No, probably we can always improve and make it better, but again, if I look at the outside world what other counties and states do, I think we're in a better position.

  • "The voter ID requirements are more stringent now, so it is harder to cheat on voter registration and all that stuff."

Blake Rife: "What I think is interesting is that we haven’t had any real complaints about elections in our country until very recently. The truth is the U.S. has served as a model for democracy worldwide for decades. We’ve done a really good job with democracy and we’ve done a really good job of building a model for other countries to follow. The fact that we’re living in this world now where all of a sudden our elections are suspect seems like kinda cheap politics to me.

  • "I will never vote in a way that makes it harder for people to actually get to the polling place. If South Dakotans are interested in voter ID, then that needs to be free. You need to be able to go down to the courthouse at your leisure and get a free ID that says, 'Hey, I am so-and-so and I’m here to vote.' ... You don't need to have money to have a voice."

See more from District 2 candidates here:

Meet the Dist. 2 folks looking to represent you in Pierre
District 2's lone state senate seat has already been decided as Sen. John Sjaarda will return to Pierre unopposed and in a new chamber. But, the district has three men vying to represent its people in two open seats in the South Dakota House of Representatives.
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

District 6

Garret Campbell: "Honestly, I should be paying closer attention to that part."

  • Campbell said he wants to ensure absentee ballots are counted, and perhaps if election staff see an issue, they could contact the voter to come fix their ballot.
  • "If it's a blowout and the amount of people who are in that small section of absentees screwed over by bureaucracy, then fine – for speed and budget we can ignore that. But if it is close enough, we have a due diligence to people to make sure we can actually have them vote."

Jerry Jongeling: "I think we do have to make sure our election officials have the resources they need to do an accurate audit of the ballots and whatnot. I think we do have to have IDs in order to vote – you have to be a U.S. citizen."

Elliott Neff: "It sounds like a broken record to say that I'm not here with all the answers – I'm not. My principle – let's start with the basics – voter ID. If you can't go to Costco without your ID, you really shouldn't be able to vote without ID."

  • Neff said he also thinks it's "egregious" that votes in California can't be counted for weeks, and he said he'd like to approach all questions around elections with the question of: "is the proposed solution going to be more transparent and accountable or less so?"

Austin Wolf: "This is easy. I think elections are secure. ... I think we need to expand absentee voting. With a rural state, mail-in voting is very important.

  • "I think voting is secure, but I think we need to make it easier for people, not trying to make it harder. You want as many people voting as you can."

See more from District 6 candidates here:

Meet the Dist. 6 folks looking to represent you in Pierre
District 6's lone senate seat has already been decided, as Ernie Otten will return to Pierre unopposed. But there's a full slate of candidates vying for the two open seats in the South Dakota House of Representative.
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

District 9

Amanda Potter mentioned the ongoing conversation in the South Dakota Secretary of State race about hand-counting.

  • "There is no other type of job where doing something by hand with human power is seen as more accurate than using a machine. In accounting we’re using software. We’re not using paper ledgers because we know there's human error. ...
  • "If we don't think they're secure, if we’re worried about that, then we need to spend money into upgrading security. The answer is not going to hand counting. That just makes everything worse.
  • "For us to have a Secretary of State candidate who is a proponent of that is just preposterous."

Megan Tschetter: "I will always stand with election integrity. I was highly concerned to find out that we had people voting from PMBs (private mailboxes).

  • "That's highly concerning to me, and I would like to see that that kind of thing is not happening. I believe you should be a resident with a verifiable address of the state of South Dakota to vote in our elections.
  • "As far as the early voting, it could stand to be shortened a little bit without taking away people’s rights to vote."

Tesa Schwans: "The election process in South Dakota has always been very transparent, and a lot of people think, 'Oh, it's mostly a red state and mostly Republican and not very many Democrats,' but I do think the primary process is really important to keep the integrity in and to have those particular parties picking their particular candidates. ...

  • "Election integrity is a big part of what has come across legislation in recent years. One of the bills we passed is that you should be a U.S. citizen and South Dakota citizen to vote in our elections, and I support that."

See more from District 9 candidates here:

Meet the Dist. 9 folks who want to represent you in Pierre
District 9's lone senate seat has already been decided, and Sen. Joy Hohn will return to Pierre for another term. Three women are vying for the remaining two state house seats in a rare all-female district representing Hartford and northwest Sioux Falls.
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

District 10

Liz Larson (Senate): "I do feel like overall — I’m thinking specifically on the mayoral election in this — there are some loosey-goosey areas in our codes at that level that just need to be clarified.

  • "I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there about hand-counting being more accurate than voting by machine or machine counting, and I think there’s just some myths out there.
  • "We all want to have election integrity, and I think we need to dispel some of the myths and get back to sort of realizing that we have a common goal here and that a healthy democracy and healthy voting systems work for everyone and quit trying to piece-meal stuff together and attack our system."

Michael Dupic (Senate): Declined to be interviewed.

Adam Bair (House): "One thing that I noticed from running the campaign this summer is it’s increasingly getting harder for people to vote. It’s getting harder for people to register to vote. There are more hoops to jump through.

  • "I understand the intention behind it, but it feels like an undue burden for people to go through to exercise their right to vote.
  • "As far as election dates, Sioux Falls tried to align more with the state elections, which I think worked well to help drive turnout. I think it benefitted the entire process to have those elections line up rather than each have their separate dates."

Kathleen Brudvig (House): "I think that we should be making it easier, not harder, for people to vote. It is a fundamental right and a huge pillar of democracy — making sure people have free and fair elections and are able to vote. That is what makes South Dakota and America work.

  • The SD SAVE Act that we just passed – the legality is questionable. Of course I want our elections to be secure, but when you look by the numbers voter fraud at any large scale just doesn’t really happen in the way some claim. So making voting accessible – I’m all for absentee and mail-in voting.
  • "Expanding people’s opportunity to vote, the ways people can vote, and just making that a more accessible process – I’m all for it."

Kimberly Petterson (House): "That’s a great question. The election process, I think, is so much more complex than it needs to be. Voter ID is very important. I think it’s important to have transparency in our elections. I think our auditors have done a good job with that. ...

  • "I think we could do a better job for people that don’t necessarily reside here all the time and they’re voting here — RVers needs to be looked at more carefully. Making sure every voter’s vote counts and that we’re counting them correctly and having a lot of transparency — that is important."

John Pohlman (House): "I think, by and large, elections are well-run in Sioux Falls and in South Dakota.

  • "I’m not a big fan of going 100% to hand counting. I think that’s a huge step backwards for the state, and we shouldn’t be doing that. Any tests we’ve done have seemed to bear out that the system we have is extremely accurate, so I don’t know that we need to alter it in any dramatic way.
  • "I think sometimes we get some frivolous ballot issues that we all have to vote on. I would advocate maybe for raising the number of signatures to put something on the ballot.
  • "Requirements for who’s eligible — we have those in place. ... I don’t have any problem with requiring American citizens to be able to prove they are citizens to vote."

See more from District 10 candidates here:

Meet the Dist. 10 folks looking to represent you in Pierre
District 10 is one of few districts in the Sioux Falls area that was able to field both Democratic and Republican candidates in both the house and senate races. Meet the candidates here.
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

District 11

Chris Karr (Senate): Did not respond to interview requests.

Aaron Matson (Senate): "I think first of all we should have online voter registration ... I hope I could work with the new secretary of state to make that happen. I think that would help engage more people in the process.

  • "If you look at red and blue states, both have automatic voter registration. It doesn’t mean you have to vote, but you’re just added to the voter list automatically. I think that’s a good practice, and it helps increase voter engagement and turnout.
  • "Something that is an intriguing idea to me that somebody approached me with is that in some states independents can pick a party primary — so they vote in the Democratic or Republican primary, but they don’t have to switch their registration."

Brian Mulder (House): "I think we have a pretty good system in South Dakota, and sometimes we like to make mountains out of molehills on what the real problems are.

  • "If there's some small tweaks to make conservative adjustments – and that's really what conservatism is – not tipping everything upside down and starting over but rather making small tweaks/adjustments to make our systems better. I'd be open to those conversations, but I would need to hear the arguments of why or why not. Overall I think we have a pretty good system that works for South Dakota."

Sonja Mentzer (House): "We consolidated our city and state elections trying to make it easier or cost affordable, and now the city needs to probably change their runoff rules.

  • "There was just too tight of a timeframe after the general primary in June to the mayor runoff. That first and foremost needs to change so that we have time for absentee ballots.
  • "I do think especially because of that tight timeframe we need to look at the absentee ballots when there is a runoff. I think it's fair to allow them to count if they’re postmarked by a certain time and extend that if we can’t change the date. It’s a travesty when we have people who voted legitimately and did everything right and those are set aside and can’t be counted."
  • Mentzer also said she expects to see an outcry from RVers who are no longer able to vote in state races.

Tracey Quint (House): "One of the biggest things that I would like to see change is the timeline. Having so many separate elections – having an election for city, mayor – it’s hard for people to keep track of that many different times. I think changing it so that all the elections happen together would help."

Keri Weems (House): "I really am an advocate of the joint ballot (local/state). I think it’s important for us to put all of that together because our voter turnout is much higher.

  • "If I were gonna make any changes, I would say the cost of running out of ballots is probably greater than the cost of having extra ballots. ... I would want to make sure there’s a clear distinction between who’s voting federal and who can vote on all of the issues. I think that’s one thing that is newly changed and so that needs to be really, really clear.
  • "I like early voting. I love that people show up and vote in person. I like that we require an ID."

See more from District 11 candidates here:

Meet the Dist. 11 folks who want to represent you in Pierre
Six candidates are looking to represent this geographically small but populous district, and both house and senate seats are contested.
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

District 12

Amber Arlint (House): "I have heard there’s been some heartache around the implementation of election law. At the end of the day we never want to disenfranchise voters, but we have to balance that with making sure that we have safe and fair elections.

  • "As far as election timelines go, this particular cycle was a challenge because there were changes made to law to move the school board and mayor elections onto one of the primary/general election ballots. I don’t think we are going to see those challenges on timeline in the future. This was the effect of making the change, but now the change has been made. My hope is that in the future that process is much smoother."

Stephanie Arne (House): "Voting should be incredibly easy. The steps should be incredibly transparent.

  • "There should be multiple opportunities for a diversity of individuals to register and vote. Voting is a right. We should celebrate it and make it accessible. ... If I ask for a ballot, it should arrive within 3–5 business days. If any company can guarantee shipping, why can’t our city or state?
  • "When I put my ballot in, I need to know how many days I have before the cutoff date. Can I trust that the system will be in place to pick it up at the right time so my ballot is counted? None of this should be wishy-washy. It should be the same every time, and that is not asking a lot."

Kerry Loudenslager (House): "I’ll refer again to an amendment that’s going to be on the ballot – Amendment J. Right now, if you’re not a U.S. citizen you can’t vote in South Dakota. This amendment will codify that by putting it in writing.

  • "As far as election integrity, we’ve got to keep an eye on that. I’m not a technology expert, but when you’re using voting machines and internet systems, we have to be very careful about algorithm manipulation."
  • "I heard about drop boxes. Right now drop boxes are not allowed. I was happy to see that trend. Even though these drop boxes would be manned, you still never know if there could be some corruption.
  • "(There's also) some talk about hand-counting ballots. I had a conversation with (Minnehaha County Auditor) Leah Anderson. That would be resource-intensive and cost the city or the state a lot of money if we were to go to hand counting."

Kari Shanard-Koenders (Senate): "I think our elections are one of the most important things we can do in this state and in the nation, so it’s important to get them right.

  • "One of the things we did in the last legislative session was put all of the election pieces into one date. I do think that’s a good idea, but I think it was perhaps an overwhelming ask for some of the admin staff that have to run elections. ... Change is hard. I’m not looking at any changes in elections right now.
  • "We’ll have a new Secretary of State as well, and who knows how that will go. So we just hope for the best on that front and continue to do elections the way we have."

Joe Zweifel (Senate): Could not be reached for comment.

See more from District 12 candidates here:

Meet the Dist. 12 folks who want to represent you in Pierre
District 12 has some heavy hitters who are no longer in play. Here's a closer look at who's looking to represent the central and southwest Sioux Falls district.
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

District 13

Ali Rae Horsted: "Generally, I think South Dakota does a good job of administering elections.

  • "I know nationally there are folks who think there’s a lot of fraud, and the legislature has implemented laws to address that. I just think it’s really important that there’s consistency across the board with the Secretary of State and the county auditors in how elections are administered.
  • "I wasn’t a fan of SB 175 (requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote). I’m glad they took it to court and ensured clarification regarding what documentation is required for voter registration. I think we do a pretty good job already, so I don’t necessarily support any big changes other than potentially improving consistency and clarity."

John Hughes: "I support documenting citizenship as a condition of registering to vote. I think that’s a no-brainer. It’s shocking to me that we have the League of Women Voters filing suit in federal court over an issue like that."

  • Hughes also said he's a "big supporter of direct democracy" when it comes to initiated measures and referendums, and he's also a supporter of raising the threshold required to amend the state constitution.

Jack Kolbeck: "I’m gonna just tell you this – we went through a primary election. We went through a run‑off election for the mayor. We went through a run‑off election for the governor. And we had recounts and we had audits on both elections. And it came out almost exactly the way the election took place on the day of the election. ...

  • "With what happened in our town, that should prove that in the state of South Dakota our elections, our county auditors and the officials at the Secretary of State’s office have done a remarkable job. I was so impressed with our county auditors."

See more from candidates in District 13:

Meet the Dist. 13 folks who want to represent you in Pierre
District 13's lone state senate seat has already been decided as veteran lawmaker Sue Peterson will run unopposed. Meanwhile, three people are vying for the two open seats in the South Dakota House of Representatives.
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

District 14

Taylor Rae Rehfeldt: Could not be reached for comment before deadline.

Tyler Tordsen said the move to combine local and state elections on one ballot was a good idea, but that he'd like t0 ensure ballots are printed on time.

  • "The biggest thing I would like to see changed and for us to consider and look into is deadlines for things being submitted in, even petition deadlines. You have a hard deadline, but you rely on registered mail that takes days or weeks. ... Anything we can do to instill more confidence in our election process at any level is a good thing."

Erinn Williams said she'd like to see online voter registration implemented in the hopes of getting more young people to participate in local elections. She also shared the idea of hosting clinics to educate folks on how early voting work.

  • "Somebody's got to make sure those people that went in and voted and did everything right still get their vote counted."

See more from District 14 candidates:

Meet the Dist. 14 folks who want to represent you in Pierre
District 14's senate seat is already decided as Larry Zikmund will return to Pierre unopposed. That leaves three people vying for the two open seats in the South Dakota House of Representatives.
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

District 15

June CopperStad (House): "We just made some pretty significant changes with voter registration that have made it a lot harder for people to register. ...

  • "We’re trying to keep people from accessing their right to vote and I believe that it’s intentional and that that is anti-democratic, and it should scare all of us.
  • "We need our mail-in ballot process. It creates access to voting for folks who aren’t able to physically get to the polls due to whether that’s disability, caregivers, can’t get out of the house, any number of legitimate reasons that someone may choose to have a mail-in ballot. And that will help them as a valid legal voter."

Brenda Lawrence (Senate): Could not be reached for comment before publication deadline.

Erik Muckey (Senate): "I think it’s important to keep in mind that we already have, for most of our history, strong voter ID law and very strict restrictions on citizen voting. Any attack, particularly when it comes to Amendment J, doesn’t make sense for South Dakota.

  • "What I want to see more of in South Dakota are better options in our ability to register online. It's important to look at absentee timelines and understand we’re putting too much restriction – we should be able to accept ballots sent up to election day. I think it’s also important to address mailbox voters. I think the laws put in place were a bad-faith attempt to disenfranchise voters on the basis of residency without having a conversation on what residency means."

Joni Tschetter (House): "One of the things I want to do with elections is to educate people. I’m glad there was a runoff because a lot of people didn’t know what a runoff was. ...

  • "A lot of the concerns and scariness about elections could be diminished by having the public go to the elections during that night. They can go watch them test the machines. The public should go to election night at the auditor’s office – probably some of them don’t even know they’re welcome to.
  • "They should go to the test run of the ballots and the county commission meeting where they deal with the ballots and confirm results. The best part – they should be a poll worker. That would solve a lot of their questions, and they would actually understand the voting process a lot better."

Kadyn Wittman (House): "I actually would like to see the state do less because what I’ve seen the state do is continually infringe and make it more difficult for people to engage in the voting process.

  • "(The state has) shortened the absentee timeline, adding requirements for showing ID at the ballot box. I would like to see the legislature take some proactive steps.
  • "I would love to see online voter registration in my lifetime. I think that’s really prohibitive for our rural and elderly community members. I would love to see us lengthen the amount of time for absentee ballots. Make voting easier and more accessible. I’d like to see us bring policy forward that does that instead of continuously chipping away at voter rights."

Andre Zachariahs (House): "I can’t pretend to be an expert in that either right now, but the legislature moved up and compressed those timelines. We heard that from some of the county auditors that there really wasn’t going to be enough time. We saw that in the primary, having over 150 different permutations of what a ballot could look like.

  • "Hand-counting ballots is not going to be an effective way as the city continues to grow. Not going to be an effective way to run our elections.
  • "We need to be able to work with and understand the limitations within each county office. Counties where an entire municipality overlaps – it's easier over there to meet deadlines like that. A community like Sioux Falls, it’s really difficult. I think we need to be prudent in the stress that we’re placing on the resources we have within the county offices."

See more from District 15 candidates here:

Meet the Dist. 15 folks who want to represent you in Pierre
District 15 one of few districts in the Sioux Falls area in which every single seat is hotly contested by both parties.
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

District 16

Lisa Bogue: Could not be reached for comment.

Tim Rhead: "I believe we have a very fair election system here in South Dakota. I don’t know if I would like to see a lot of changes to that."

  • Rhead also noted challenges with absentee ballots given how long it takes for mail to be delivered now, as well as the recent Supreme Court case allowing states to count ballots delivered after election day – something S.D. could implement.
  • "I believe in Sioux Falls there were some that came in afterwards that were postmarked (in time for Election Day). It would be nice to see that to make sure everyone’s vote is heard."

John Shubeck: "I think that’s one where I would have to read more on it. I feel like it’s been working pretty smoothly so far.

  • "I know there are people that always are worried about transparency. Any transparency we can bring to it is awesome. I think overall the way we’re doing it is the most efficient that we can and most reliable. ... I think in that Sioux Falls election, it seemed like they did things to the best of their ability to my knowledge."

See more from District 16 candidates:

Meet the Dist. 16 folks who want to represent you in Pierre
District 16's lone senate seat has already been decided, as Kevin D. Jensen will return to Pierre running unopposed. That leaves three people vying for two open seats in the South Dakota House of Representatives.
Sioux Falls SimplifiedMegan Raposa

What happens next?

Election Day is Nov. 3.