Voter Fraud in South Dakota Elections? The Truth Is Scarce and Overblown

Voter fraud in South Dakota is not the epidemic some political actors and advocacy groups make it out to be. According to a fact brief from South Dakota News Watch, only three individuals have been convicted of voter fraud in the state’s elections since 2004. These cases include a man who pleaded guilty to voting more than once in 2004, a Mitchell resident convicted of voting twice in a school board election, and a Brookings County man charged with attempting to vote twice in 2022. Two of these offenders received suspended sentences, and one served time.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative group notorious for pushing strict voting laws nationwide under the guise of preventing fraud, lists these convictions as evidence of widespread problems. However, the reality is that these isolated incidents are few and far between, especially when compared to the millions of ballots cast without incident.

Adding to the confusion, South Dakota officials found that in 2024, 273 non-citizens were mistakenly added to voter rolls due to human error—only one of whom actually cast a ballot in the 2016 election. This administrative slip-up has been leveraged by some lawmakers to justify a new bill allowing individuals and election officials to challenge the citizenship status of voters. Critics argue this opens the door to voter intimidation and suppression rather than protecting election integrity.

The push for these laws comes amid a broader national trend where claims of rampant voter fraud have been repeatedly debunked but still serve as a pretext for restrictive voting measures that disproportionately impact marginalized communities.

South Dakota’s experience underscores the critical need to separate fact from fiction in election integrity debates. While vigilance against fraud is necessary, the evidence does not support the alarmist narratives used to curtail voting access. Democracy depends on protecting the right to vote, not undermining it with baseless fears and political theater.

For more detailed information, see the original fact brief by South Dakota News Watch, which carefully examines the evidence behind voter fraud claims in the state.

[Source: South Dakota News Watch, Heritage Foundation, Rapid City Journal, South Dakota Searchlight]