‘You can’t have it both ways’: RVers bemoan state’s welcome of their money, but not their votes

Mark Trowbridge is technically a South Dakota resident, but he might not be for long.

If South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden signs two bills designed to restrict the voting rights of full-time travelers like Trowbridge and his wife, “that could be a game-changer for us in terms of residency.”

“My voting rights are important,” Trowbridge said.

The bills would require county auditors to send a federal-only absentee ballot listing only candidates for president, U.S. Senate and U.S. House to mailbox-only South Dakotans who haven’t spent 30 consecutive nights in a single in-state location. 

Republican purge of RV voters could shift Sioux Falls district more Democratic

“We travel a tremendous amount, and 30 consecutive days would be pretty unlikely,” Trowbridge said. 

The couple lived in Montana before transitioning into their itinerant lifestyle 12 years ago. They tend to spend colder months in Arizona and warmer ones with family in Okoboji, Iowa, or with friends in North Sioux City, South Dakota. 

They plan to explore Canada and Alaska’s northern reaches over the next two years. Places with vintage car rallies — in the U.S. or abroad — can also serve as temporary homes. The Trowbridges have put their 1968 Volvo P1800 through several of the niche racing contests.

Since 2018, the couple have been registered to vote in South Dakota. Their “residential” address is among the thousands in legislative District 15 listed to 3916 N. Potsdam Ave. in Sioux Falls, the site of a mail forwarding business called Dakota Post. 

The state lacks an income tax, and it’s fairly easy to establish residency. The bare minimum requirements to claim the Rushmore State as one’s legal home include a driver’s license, an address and a vehicle registration. 

Trowbridge lists “no party affiliation” on his voter registration, but he leans conservative and votes that way. 

Fewer than half the people registered with Dakota Post as their primary residence voted in the 2024 general election, but Trowbridge and his wife did.

Canadian immigrants: We take voting seriously

So did Rodger “Dusty” Giles and his wife.

“I’m an immigrant by choice, so I take my citizenship very seriously,” said Giles, who moved to the U.S. more than four decades ago. He and his wife are both originally from Canada.

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The Gileses stay on the road for a little more than half the warmer months in any given year. They’ve considered buying property around Sioux Falls, but their appreciation for their ability to be South Dakota residents without that property is tied in part to the absentee ballots they get each election cycle. 

“Some people obviously couldn’t care less, because all they care about is being able to register there and save money on their taxes,” Giles said.

They’re conservative voters for the most part, Giles said, and they do their best to stay informed on local issues. They get election paraphernalia in the mail on state and local races, and they can use the internet to research candidates and ballot questions. If he doesn’t know where candidates stand in a particular race, he doesn’t vote in it.

Giles would prefer a ballot with only federal office candidates to no ballot — which is what House Bill 1208 envisions for voters who claim South Dakota residency but don’t sleep there for a set number of nights. 

But he’s concerned the next step for lawmakers could be to make residency rules so tight that “we can’t do this any more” at all. 

Noem over Walz for Minnesota native

Harry Aultman will be bummed to lose a vote in South Dakota’s gubernatorial election. 

When reached by South Dakota Searchlight, he and his wife were parked in Arizona, hiding from the rain inside their RV.

He has more affection for Republican former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem than he had for Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee who still serves as governor in the Aultmans’ home state of Minnesota. 

“I like South Dakota laws a lot more than I like Minnesota laws, and I hated our governor,” Harry Aultman said, before reconsidering. “Well, I don’t hate him. I shouldn’t say that. That’s a harsh word. I just think he’s worthless.”

He would hate to lose his right to vote in state and local races, even if he understands why some South Dakotans might get squirrelly about his participation.

“I’m sure they’re complaining that they’re full-time residents, and they should have more control over what’s in their county or their town, and I guess I’d have to agree with them,” Aultman said.

With in-laws in the state and a conservative worldview that squares with the majority of the state’s year-round population, he doesn’t feel like a total outsider. He and his wife cast in-person early ballots in 2024, in part because they wanted a say in an abortion rights ballot measure.

Lifetime RVer: Trump and Musk, not travelers, are the issue 

Walter Liggon, meanwhile, didn’t understand why a reporter in South Dakota would bother asking the whys and hows of his voting behavior when President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk are “trying to take away Social Security.”

“They will take over Social Security and privatize it,” Liggon said from Oregon. “What they’re doing now is all for their good, it’s not to help the country.”

Liggon’s been a full-time traveler on-and-off since 1974, but he hasn’t always affiliated himself with South Dakota. He registered to vote in the state as an independent in 2016, using a Dakota Post address.

He doesn’t appreciate the idea that people in RVs are somehow out to influence elections.

“The RVers that live out here, they’re not out to change somebody or anything like that,” Liggon said. “But they want their rights.”

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Liggon doesn’t spend as much time in South Dakota as someone with a physical District 15 address. He’s more like the majority of his fellow 15ers than most Dakota Post voters in one way, though — he doesn’t identify with a major party. Voters registered as independents or as voters with no party affiliation make up a majority of the district. Of the major parties, Republicans have only 5 percentage points more of District 15’s total registered voters than Democrats do. 

That pattern is different for RV voters in District 15. Republicans outnumber those in Liggon’s party-less category by about 200 at the district’s Potsdam Avenue precinct. GOP voters outnumber Democrats there more than 2-to-1.

Trowbridge, the classic Volvo driver who says he might need to reconsider his residency in light of recent legislation, said he’s disillusioned with both major parties.

His political party, he said, shouldn’t be an issue for state lawmakers when they think about RVers. Trowbridge sees the issue as one of ideological consistency. If the state lets him register as a resident, counts him as a resident when calculating seats in the U.S. Congress and lets him dump money into a local business like Dakota Post that pays property taxes, he said, it’s disingenuous to deprive him of voting rights.

“You’re either going to gain this advantage from people by giving them this choice, or stop it all together,” Trowbridge said. “If you choose to stop it all together, you know, I understand that, but you can’t have it both ways.”