From my e-mail box, the Dusty Johnson campaign is urging patience for voters, and encouraging them not to give up on getting out to vote for Dusty if they’re having issues.

From the Rapid City Journal:

Pennington County Auditor Julie Pearson said voting has now resumed in Pennington County after paper poll books were delivered to polling locations this morning.Some Rapid City residents were unable to vote early Tuesday because of computer problems at the polls.

and…

The South Dakota Secretary of State’s office is expected to issue a news release today announcing the extended hours.

Read it here.

From the Argus Leader:

Update 9:15 a.m.: Voting stalled at some locations

Various media reports indicate some voters are having a tough time casting ballots across the state this morning.

KOTA in Rapid City reports that people are being turned away from some polling locations because of a computer glitch. Nobody has been unable to vote at the Southwest Middle School location, a poll worker told KOTA.

Other issues are affecting polls in the Brown County area, though it is not immediately known if they are related.

Read that here.

Considering the Secretary of State is running in the race at the top of the ballot for Congress, reports like this don’t help her in the quest for higher office:

Brown County deputy auditor Lynn Heupel tells American News reporter Shannon Marvel this morning that the voting system is down statewide.

We have been unable to independently confirm that.

However, Brown County commissioner Duane Sutton told Marvel at this morning’s commission meeting that Brookings County is also experiencing problems with voting.

Read that here.

I’m happy to report that the Secretary of State was able to get other important news out:

From KEVN, candidates need to make sure they’re tapping into the importance of early voting. And we may see it become more and more prevalent:

We won’t know until Tuesday who the winners are in this election but one thing seems certain: There will be a lot of votes to count.

That’s because the early voting numbers are high. Very high.

“Early voting number have been phenomenal this year,” said Pennington County Auditor Julie Pearson.

The numbers? 6,697 Pennington County voters cast early ballots this election setting a new all-time record for any primary vote.

Read it all here.

The other day when State Senator Stace Nelson was bleating out the announcement of the formation of an exclusive Conservative Caucus that was only open to the membership of people determined by his… ahem.. Citizens for Liberty’s cherry-picked scorecard, I visited the facebook page for the organization, and it just seemed that something was odd about the poorly cobbled together logo.

It had a Republican Elephant.. holding what looked like a Libertarian torch. But I didn’t figure it out until I searched for the original clip art that this was obviously taken from:

Someone made it look like the trunk was tied in a knot to hold the torch. But there was one more detail that popped out when you read the photo description for the logo:

“The charging bull elephant carrying the torch of liberty on high, symbolizes the courage of Republicans to lead the way on open government, fighting corruption, limiting government, protecting Constitutional rights, fighting for the freedom of enslaved Americans, and fighting for the voting rights of women.”

Aside from the nonsensical parts of their raison d’etre, the first sentence tips it off. And then you can’t unsee it. “The charging bull elephant carrying the torch of liberty.   Oooookay…  Someone actually added some boy parts to this logo.

I’m not sure how seriously we can take a group that calls everyone a RINO, and tries to prove their worthiness over other Republicans by exposing their junk… in their logo, that is.

It is SO on!

My wife came back from a meeting today, and announced that she has a work conference next month in Washington DC. (I think it took me all of 10 minutes to arrange adult supervision for the kids.) I’m less concerned with it being DC in sweltering July, as opposed to the fact I actually have an opportunity to go!

A trip to DC means two things. #1 – I’ll be stopping up on the hill to visit our delegation. And #2? Planning for the SDWC 2018 Fish & Chips tour of Washington DC shall now commence!

The Kristi Noem for Governor rally had a nice crowd of about 40 or so people who popped in for the event in Pioneer Park tonight. It included some local dignitaries, as well as some friends from out of town:

The Noem tour ends up in Watertown tonight.

Tomorrow is the big day – If you haven’t already voted early/absentee, make sure you participate and cast a ballot!  Your vote counts!

 

Where do you think the two big Republican primaries are going to land tomorrow?

In the Congressional race, I think it’s a safe bet that Dusty Johnson is going to come out on top based on the recent polling. The question is “How Neal Tapio and Shantel Krebs going to split the remainder of the field?”

And I couldn’t call the Governor’s race if I tried. I think it’s going to come down to each campaign’s GOTV effort.

I’m also going to be curious to see how early voting affects the outcome, as well as how prevalent it will be. It just keeps growing, and it could be a significant factor in the outcome.

Sound off in the comment section!

The Neal Tapio for Congress campaign has posted a new commercial. From Facebook: