The South Dakota House has passed a bill requiring audits of ballots and voting equipment in close – and not so close – presidential elections.
The bill requires a “forensic audit” to verify federal office results if two presidential candidates come within 10 percentage points of each other.
Representative Taffy Howard, who is challenging GOP Congressman Dusty Johnson in part because he rejects former President Donald Trump’s claims of massive voter fraud in 2020, is the bill’s sponsor.
Howard said on the state House floor that other states saw fraud in the 2020 election and that South Dakota’s elections had “irregularities.”
An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six 2020 battleground states found no evidence of widespread fraud.
Also on the election front, the House has passed a proposal to move the state’s presidential primary to Super Tuesday in hopes of gaining the state greater attention from White House hopefuls.
The South Dakota primary is usually in June, but the measure passed by the house 41-26 sets the presidential primary as “the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March.”
That’s better known as Super Tuesday, when the greatest number of states hold their primaries and caucuses.
Changing the election date must still pass the South Dakota House and be signed by Governor Kristi Noem before it would take effect.