Davison County Auditor resigns, flags election issues

MITCHELL S.D. (KELO) — With just over three months until the 2024 election, South Dakota’s 10th largest county will be looking for a new auditor.

Susan Kiepke, the long-time Davison County Auditor, has announced her resignation. Her last day as Davison County auditor will be August, 16 and she will be starting her new job at South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance.

“Elections used to be fun and everybody trusted the system and you could come to work, do your job, and everyone was happy, that’s not the case anymore,” Kiepke said in an interview with KELLOLAND News. “There are people that don’t think elections are run properly, they believe that someone is hacking machines that are un-hackable.”

Kiepke said the claims of the 2024 June Primary being skewed are false. She added her office dealt with people on a regular basis claiming the results were wrong.

“We just had our first post-election audit in Davison County and it came out 100% accurate and we are still being told that it was done wrong,” Kiepke said.

Monae Johnson, Secretary of State for South Dakota, said in a press release , that South Dakota Counties showed little to no discrepancies from the manually counted post-election audit to what was counted by machines on election night.

Kiepke said she’s not worried about the integrity of South Dakota elections, but she is worried for election officials, a concern she also held earlier this year.

“I used to have more precincts with five poll workers at each precinct. I have cut down on precincts, polling places and now only have three poll workers at each precinct, primarily due to security concerns,” Kiepke said in a column published earlier this year for the National Association of Counties (NACo).

The SD Legislature passed a law during the 2023 legislative session requiring there must be a post-election audit that reviews voted ballots in five percent of voting precincts, comparing the paper record to the results produced by the voting system.

Kiepke said the public should listen to election officials.

“When counties offer a workshop or if they are showing testing of the machines that’s open to the public, show up,” Kiepke said.

Kiepke said while her time of being employed at the county is coming to an end, she doesn’t plan on going anywhere.

“The new company will allow me to continue to help at the county wherever I’m needed, so I’ll be around,” Kiepke said.

The last day to register to vote in South Dakota is October 21. Absentee voting begins on September 20.

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