South Dakota’s US House candidates clash over Trump’s mail-in voting restrictions

The two candidates for South Dakota’s lone U.S. House seat expressed opposing views this week about President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict mail-in voting. 

Democratic nominee Nikki Gronli criticized Republican nominee Marty Jackley’s support for Trump’s actions.

“This proposal flies in the face of our long tradition of running secure, accessible elections, and our local election officials do an excellent job,” Gronli said in a news release. “They don’t need Marty Jackley helping Washington interfere with the way South Dakotans vote.”

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Gronli and Jackley, the state’s attorney general, are running for the seat being vacated by Republican U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson. He ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor in the June primary election.

Jackley, along with some other Republican attorneys general, has intervened in litigation to support a Trump executive order that gave rise to a Postal Service rule restricting mail-in voting. Among other things, the rule prohibits the Postal Service from delivering ballots to registered voters whose citizenship has not been verified by a Department of Homeland Security database. 

A federal judge has blocked the order as an unconstitutional intrusion into states’ management of elections, but the Trump administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn that ruling.

In response to South Dakota Searchlight questions about Gronli’s criticism, Jackley said in a statement that he is supporting Trump’s action to “prevent sending mail-in ballots to individuals who are not citizens or registered to vote.”

“I want all eligible Americans to be able to legally vote in American elections,” Jackley said, in part. “My opponent’s desire to send a ballot to someone not registered to vote opens the door to election fraud.” 

Advance voting for the Nov. 3 general election begins Sept. 18 in South Dakota, including mail-in voting and walk-in voting at local election offices.