SEARCHLIGHT NEWS
Election workers use a machine to process absentee ballot envelopes for Minnehaha County, South Dakota, on Nov. 5, 2024, in the county administration building. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
By Meghan O’Brien, Makenzie Huber and Seth Tupper
Byron Sutter has been voting by mail for years, ever since he worked in healthcare and couldn’t leave his patients to vote in person.
Mary Ann Klarenbeek votes by mail because she has breathing problems and can’t stand in line at a polling place.
They’re some of about 5,700 people who have voted by mail so far in the runup to South Dakota’s Nov. 3 general election.
By Meghan O’Brien
Amid failed attempts to restrict mail-in voting by President Donald Trump, who has alleged “mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt,” South Dakota Searchlight reached out to mail-in voters across the state to learn why they vote by mail and why the option is important to them.
By Meghan O’Brien
Groups opposing a higher bar for approving state constitutional amendments have so far outspent supporters of the ballot question by nearly $2 million, according to campaign finance reports filed this week.
L-No, a state-level ballot question committee formed to defeat the proposal, has raised over $2.2 million.
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FROM STATES NEWSROOM
Competing signs in the same Anchorage, Alaska yard, seen Aug. 7, 2026, support the candidates for U.S. Senate in Alaska: incumbent Dan Sullivan, a Republican, and challenger Mary Peltola, a Democrat. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
By Jonathan Shorman
The U.S. Department of Justice is stepping up its legal campaign over the midterm elections, suing Alaska over its U.S. Senate election and appealing a lawsuit against suspected noncitizen voters in California.
Election law experts have cast doubt on the strength of the cases, criticizing them as performative.
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