League of Women Voters comes for SAVE SD Act - SB175, and a CALL TO ACTION
As South Dakota has been highlighted on the national stage for months on end, and the inaction of “Leader” John Thune continues to stoke the ire of every patriotic American demanding he use his leadership skills to pass the SAVE America Act, the liberals and leftist groups are descending on South Dakota’s citizenship requirements to register to vote.
The League of Women voters attorneys filed a 31 page petition for rule making to the State Board of Elections - which are in conflict with the law, and intentionally seeking to weaken the legislative mandate to secure our elections. This organization is part of the dark money web of NGO’s funded by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, the Tides Foundation, Ford Foundation & MacArthur Foundation.
As we all know, and the SDGOP Convention election of Heather Baxter clearly demonstrated, the leadership vacuum in the Secretary of State’s Office has endangered the safety and security of South Dakota’s elections.
In 2025, Senator John Carley brought SB68 - Citizens only voting, which passed in veto proof margins. Then, because of the utter failure of Monae Johnson to use the power of the office to implement and enforce the citizenship requirement, an entire year went by with ZERO IMPLEMENTATION of SB68. This led Senator Carley to bring SB175 in 2026, implementing Documentary Proof of Citizenship to Vote, complementing the DMV acceptable forms of ID, very clearly laying out the ONLY forms of ID the auditors can accept as proof of citizenship.
** NEITHER BILL GAVE ANY RULEMAKING AUTHORITY TO THE UNELECTED BOARD OF ELECTIONS. Period. The Legislature resoundingly passed this bill with only a handful of nay votes.
Here is a timeline of how these events unfolded:
2025 - SB68 - require an individual be a citizen of the United States before being eligible to vote and to provide a penalty therefor. Sen. John Carley
No guidance issued by the Secretary of State, was not implemented at county level.
2026 - SB175 require that an individual provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote and to declare an emergency. Sen. John Carley
This bill specifically listed acceptable forms of identification, and they worked with the DMV to be consistent. We are unclear if any official guidance was issued to auditors.
June 2, 2026 - the League of Women Voters submitted a 31 page petition for rule making to the Board of Elections. https://boardsandcommissions.sd.gov/bcuploads/Petition%20for%20Rulemaking%20re%20South%20Dakota%20SB%20175_6.2.26.pdf
The LWS Petition requests allowance of photo copies of Driver’s Licenses for valid ID to register to vote and overly complicating the voter registration form, among other bureaucratic nonsense.
June 15, 2026 - A Board Meeting for June 30th was scheduled. The first agenda was posted.
June 22, 2026 - Agenda was revised.
June 29, 2026 - sometime before noon the SOS office posted a response to the LWV which we believe was written by the AG’s office, per discussions with legislators. This response stated there was no need to write rules. Read carefully below:
June 29, 2026 - At 4:05 PM CST a revised Response was posted, adding a commentary at the top, and stating if the Board wanted to write rules, they would begin the rule making process.
June 29, 2026 4:27 PM CST - Senator Carley emailed the Board of Elections members public comments on the LWV Petition Agenda item.
June 29, 2026 7:37 PM CST - Samantha Blencke Senior Staff Attorney Native American Rights Fund, Washington, DC emailed the Secretary of State’s Office a letter from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe President.
June 30, 2026 8:48 AM CST - Rosebud public comments posted to the SOS website.
June 30, 2026 9:00 AM CST -
Secretary of State Monae Johnson was not in attendance, out “sick”.
BOE member Austin Hoffman was not in attendance.
SDSOS Election Director Christine Lehrkamp denied receipt of Sen. Carley’s public comments and refused to post them to the website.
LWV & the ACLU had their attorneys present who gave lengthy testimony.
Deputy Tom Deadrick & LWV waived the statutory 30 day requirement for the board to address the petition.
Deputy Tom Deadrick decided all testimony would be taken, and the meeting would be recessed (not adjourned) until Johnson and Hoffman could be in attendance.
10:24 AM CST - Sen Carley again emailed Deputy SOS Deadrick demonstrating the Rosebud comments were received after Sen. Carley’s comments, again requesting their acknowledgement.
10:41 AM CST - Sen. Carley’s comments were posted to the website. (also with support from three other legislators who worked on the bill). Click HERE to read the comments.
Meeting to reconvene scheduled for July 8th, 2026. - there will be no opportunity for any more public comment.
We need to take action TODAY!
It is clear that the radical, Soros funded leftists are coming for South Dakota’s SAVE Act - SB68 and SB175.
SOUTH DAKOTA - it’s time to step up and make your opinion known.
Please call or email the following officials requesting they REJECT the Petition filed by the League of Women Voters.
Governor Larry Rhoden – (605) 773-3212
Attorney General Marty Jackley – (605) 773-3215
Secretary of State Monae Johnson – Monae.Johnson@state.sd.us
Deputy Secretary Tom Deadrick – Tom.Deadrick@state.sd.us
State Board of Elections Members:
Austin Hoffman – austinhoffman@valleytel.net
Scott McGregor – sdmcgregor906@gmail.com
Kent Alberty – kentalberty@gmail.com
Jamalia Franzen – auditor@deweycounty.biz
Lindley Howard – lindley.howard@mcpherson.sdcounty.gov
Kristin Matsuda – 22kmatsuda@use.startmail.com
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