Voting update: absentee locations and hours, drive-thru for Lincoln County

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) -At the county administration building at 6th and Minnesota Minnehaha County auditor Ben Kyte and his staff oversee voting. Kyte says, the ballot is longer this year.

“So if you’re a Sioux Falls resident, you’re going to have 30 questions. If you live outside the city limits, you’ll have 29 because you won’t have the slaughterhouse question to vote on,” said Kyte.

The Secretary of State’s website has valuable information to prepare for your time to vote.

“And then they’ll be able to show you not only where you’re voting but also your sample ballot to review,” said Kyte.

Tripp County Auditor Barb Desersa says her office will hand count and use machines to satisfy the concerns of a group of voters.

“You know, they trust their neighbor more than the machines,” said Desersa.

The Tripp County Commission decided counting both ways was a solution to concerns of machine inaccuracy or hacking risk.

“They made the decision that day to hand count the ballots for this midterm election,” said Desersa.

Desersa says the machines can’t be accessed on the internet.

“Ours does not have a modem. You know, the state of South Dakota doesn’t allow our machines to be online,” said Desersa.

Absentee voting in Lincoln county continues at the County Courthouse building. For those living closer to Sioux Falls than Canton, you can drop off your absentee ballot at the USF stadium parking lot Thursday, November 2nd, from 4-7 to a county employee and sheriff.

Whether you vote ahead of time or on election day, Kyte says the mood is typically upbeat.

“People like the opportunity to exercise their constitutional rights to vote, so yeah, I think they are generally happy to come vote,” said Kyte.