Student Voting Guide | South Dakota
Registration
http://www.sdsos.gov/electionsvoteregistration/electionsvoteregistration_overview.shtm (registration form available online)
Your registration application must be received fifteen days before the election — and if you mail in your form, it must be received — not post-marked — by that date.[1] You may register to vote if you will be 18 by the next election.[2]
Residency
South Dakota law defines residence as your “fixed” home as long as you “intend to return” there after any absence and have “no present intent of leaving” your home.[3] Students who are currently residing in their college community, and who do not have any current plans to move away, can register and vote in that community.[4]
At School. Students attending school in South Dakota should be able to register and vote at their school address if they have no current plans to move from that address.
At Home. Students who moved out of South Dakota to attend school elsewhere, and who intend on moving back after graduating, should not have a problem registering and voting in South Dakota. Under South Dakota law, voters who leave their homes in South Dakota “for a temporary purpose only” have “not changed his or her residence.”[5]
Students who lived in South Dakota before moving elsewhere to attend school, and who wish to establish or keep their South Dakota voting residency (i.e., at their parents’ South Dakota address), should have no problem doing so unless they have already registered to vote in another state. Like all states, South Dakota allows students to keep their voting residency even if they move out of the district to attend school, and the only way you will lose this residency is by establishing residency in a new state. While registering to vote in another state is not automatically considered abandonment of residency in South Dakota, some judges or officials might view it as such.
Challenges to Residency. There are no procedures under South Dakota state law for your residency to be challenged.
Identification
All students voting in South Dakota are required to either show a photo ID (including a student ID) or sign an affidavit. All voters have to show ID in South Dakota.[6] Valid forms of ID include: a South Dakota driver’s license or non-driver ID card; a passport or other photo ID issued by the U.S. government; a current student photo ID from a college or university in South Dakota; or tribal identification with a photo.[7] If you do not have ID, or if the ID is not sufficient, you can sign an affidavit and vote by regular ballot.[8]
Absentee Voting
http://www.sdsos.gov/electionsvoteregistration/electvoterpdfs/AbsenteeBallotApplication.pdf
South Dakota has no fault absentee voting for all voters, so any registered voter can vote absentee in South Dakota.[9] You either have to get your absentee ballot application notarized, or you can send along with it a copy of a valid form of photo ID (see list above).[10] Blank application forms are available on the web site of the Secretary of State at the above link. The deadline to submit an application for an absentee ballot is 3:00 pm on Election Day, but you may want to apply earlier to have enough time to receive the ballot and return it before the polls close on Election Day.[11] Your absentee ballot must be received before the polls close.[12] The absentee ballot does not need to be witnessed or notarized.
Early Voting
As a convenience to voters, South Dakota has early voting which begins as soon as ballots are available and ends on Election Day.[13] At early voting sites, you can vote any precinct’s ballot for that county. If you do not consider your school address to be your permanent address, or if you have not changed your residence yet, then early voting provides an opportunity to vote a ballot at the residence from which you are absent.
Last Updated in April 2010
[1] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-4-5 (West 2010).
[2] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-4-1.
[3] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-1-4.
[4] Interview with Kea Warne, Office of the South Dakota Secretary of State (April 24, 2008).
[5] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-1-4.
[6] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-18-6.1.
[7] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-18-6.1.
[8] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-18-6.2, -6.3.
[9] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-19-1.
[10] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-19-2.
[11] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-19-2.1.
[12] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-19-12.
[13] S.D. Codified Laws § 12-19-2.1.
