-Dave Baumeister, Minnehaha Correspondent
SIOUX FALLS – While the state of South Dakota, as a whole, saw a 26.57- percent voter turnout in the Tuesday, June 5 primary election, Minnehaha County fared much worse with only 19,890 out of 111,889 possible voters, or 17.77 percent venturing to the polls, according to the unofficial results on the South Dakota Secretary of State website.
US Congresswoman Kristi Noem was the big winner of the evening on the Republican primary ballot, garnering herself a spot in the November general election against District 21 (Bon Homme, Charles Mix, Gregory, Tripp) Democratic state legislator Billie Sutton.
Noem defeated current South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley by 12 percentage points earning 57,435 votes to his 45,069.
In the Republican race for the US House of Rep- resentatives seat that Noem leaves open to seek the governor’s chair, Dusty Johnson walked away the clear winner over opponents Shantel Krebs, the current South Dakota Secretary of State, and state legislator Neal Tapio.
Johnson, who had been endorsed by Governor Dennis Daugaard, topped Krebs and Tapio by an average of over 20 percent.
But in an election that alienated almost half the voters in the state, Democrats and independent voters had very few reasons to go to the polls. Although state Democrats have an open primary system that welcomes voters registered as independents to cast ballots, there were few races statewide where that would have applied.
In Minnehaha County, the only Democratic race that had a primary was the District 15 contest for the State House.
The Republican primary is closed to all voters not registered Republican.
However, there was a non-political ballot measure that was open to all voters in the state, Constitutional Amendment Y, offering a “fix” to the crime victims’ Marsy’s Law. (Continued on Page 2)
