The Election Superheroes
Serving as an auditor is a hard job! Some auditors are going above and beyond!
In South Dakota, county auditors run our elections.
The auditor position is generally a stressful and thankless job. The pay is often tied to political posturing. For example, the auditor in Minnehaha County is paid a fraction of her predecessor’s compensation even though she is significantly more qualified. In this case, it appears that the county commission does not like who the voters chose to be auditor and are hoping to pressure her into quitting.
The auditor’s job is even more complicated because a lot of people with political aspirations and responsibilities react to things the auditor does. Sadly a large part of voter registration, voter roll maintenance, and determinations on whether people who live out of state (mailbox, hotel, and campground residents) can vote are out of the auditor’s control. So people often complain about things the auditor cannot change.
In addition, auditors are influenced by the personal experiences of the citizens in their counties. Anxiety over the accuracy of vote tabulating machines is one of those issues. In recent years, almost everyone has had their lives disrupted by a computer hack, whether it is stolen medical records, fraudulent credit card charges, or delayed flights due to computer viruses introduced during a software update.
Thankfully the auditors now have the flexibility to do random hand count audits to verify the machine tallies. These audits provide a way to verify that the vote tallies are accurate, reassure citizens that the tallying machines are operating properly, and incentivize anyone who was thinking of cheating to refrain. South Dakota law also allows auditors to hand count in the precincts.
Interestingly, many auditors support change, especially rigorous requirements for voter roll maintenance and restrictions that keep out of state people from voting on local and state representatives. But their hands are tied, since they are receiving directives from the Secretary of State. As a result, it is extremely helpful when citizens reach out to their elected officials and ask them to revise the laws on voter roll maintenance and restrictions on out of state voters.
So next time your auditor is fighting for transparency or doing a random hand count audit, make sure you thank him/her. He/she is going the extra mile for you!