The South Dakota Secretary of State office held their third Summer Study meeting last week (August 22, 2023).
Secretary of State Monae Johnson says group members conducted a mock post-election audit, reviewed possible administrative rules, and looked at a guide that would assist county auditors in conducting a post-election audit. Participants included state legislators, county auditors, city administrators, county commissioners, secretary of state staff and a board of elections member.
Jennifer Morrell, from The Elections Group, led the discussion as the facilitator and helped bring the group to an overall understanding of the process. She emphasized that her experience with the summer study helped her understand that there isn’t a one size fits all solution for post-election audits.
Johnson says as members worked through the proposed administrative rule changes and post-election audit guide, best practices were discussed, timelines were looked at and some questions were brought up on possible legislative cleanup.
The group reviewed administrative rules that were modeled after recount administrative rules in order to provide some consistency and familiarity to the county auditors. Any legislation would need to be presented to the South Dakota Legislature and rule changes brought by the group will go through the South Dakota Board of Elections, all open to the public.
Comments