There’s a good article out there today explaining what brought Secretary of State Monae Johnson around from having doubts about election security to endorsing the Democrat, Terrence Davis, who is now running for the election:
But once Johnson became responsible for running elections herself, her views started to change. By 2024, she was publicly expressing confidence in tabulators and saying South Dakota’s election system had safeguards “built in throughout the process.” And this summer, Johnson told Republican convention delegates, “I trust the county auditors to do their jobs, and I fully support the use of secure, tested ballot tabulators.”
Former Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, said she has seen the same evolution play out among poll workers and county officials: People sometimes get involved in elections because they are skeptical of how they work. Then they discover that the problems they expected to find are not there and that some of the fixes they imagined are not workable.
“It’s a brave thing to admit,” Boockvar said. She said she could not recall another example of a statewide election official doing so.
and..
Many of the activists who helped elect Johnson in 2022 remained unconvinced. This summer, they backed state Rep. Heather Baxter, whose campaign had called for hand-counted paper ballots and eliminating machines, for secretary of state instead.
and..
In explaining her endorsement, Johnson wrote that she now knows “the difference between campaigning for this office and carrying the responsibility of leading it.” The job, she wrote, requires “the humility to listen to professionals” and “a willingness to review new information and change course when the evidence supports doing so.”
I think it’s important to recognize the importance of Secretary of State Johnson realizing that the extreme line of election paranoia that groups like SD Canvassing are trying to sell is only for the benefit of their organization. If we’re not led to be paranoid about election security, then they have no purpose, and the false prophets lose their ability to raise influence and to raise money.
Real world experience changes minds. Of course our elections are safe and well run. Very conscientious public officials and volunteers have been involved in SD elections for decades. The paranoid folks have no evidence to support their worries. Put them in office and they eventually figure that out.
This was a breath of fresh air from DWC. As a volunteer election worker in Minnehaha County, it frustrates me knowing there are people out there who are STILL election deniers. We work our tails off and make sure we are following every procedure to the T. Side note, pretty sure Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson WAS an election denier, but like Monae, she came to her senses.