From mayoral to school board races, many communities across South Dakota held local elections this week.
While off-year elections at the national level see significantly lower turnout, voting advocates say that’s nothing compared to off-year, local elections — elections that sometimes have the most immediate impact for voters.
Samantha Chapman is the ACLU of South Dakota advocacy manager. She used the recent Sioux Falls School District election as an example.
“In Sioux Falls, we just had our school board election (Tuesday), and only about 2% of voters turned out to vote in that election – so about 3,000 voters cast a ballot," Chapman said. "Whereas the Sioux Falls School Board solicited feedback from the community on cell phone policy via a survey, and that survey had 12,000 participants.”
Chapman said this disparity highlights that people care about what happens at the local level, even if turnout doesn’t always match.
“Local officials are the people who are making decisions about policy that are most directly affecting your daily life," Chapman said. "These policies made on the local level are going to have a more immediate impact on your day-to-day than our national elections will. It’s important we’re having a voice in who is making those decisions.”
New state laws from the South Dakota Legislature take effect July 1, another piece of local politics Chapman encourages residents to watch closely.