(Pierre, SD) — The debate over voting machines versus hand counting methods continues to heat up across South Dakota. South Dakota News Watch recently put out a survey that revealed most county officials who administer elections in the state don’t consider hand counting to be effective or efficient for tabulating votes. That was the consensus after input from 49 of the state’s 66 county auditors. Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson, however, has pushed strong support for hand counting expressing a lack of trust in election technology. But state elections director Rachel Soulek has voiced confidence in the current technology the state has to offer. This comes as more than a dozen South Dakota counties have made efforts to circulate petitions as election reformists claim there has been widespread fraud in recent elections across the country.
