SECRETARY OF STATE ISSUES UPDATE REGARDING CAMPAIGN FINANCE DEADLINE
(Pierre, S.D.) – Secretary of State Monae L. Johnson would like to explain the campaign finance reporting process for the Pre-General report filing.
All statewide candidate committees, statewide political action committees, statewide political parties, statewide ballot question committees, and legislative committees were required to file the Pre-General Disclosure Report detailing all transactions from their last report through October 14, 2026. The deadline to file the Pre-General Report was October 19, 2026, by 5:00pm central. Reports can be submitted through the online Campaign Finance Reporting System or reports may be submitted on paper and emailed or mailed to the Secretary of State’s office.
Approximately 300 of the 600+ committees had not filed as of Monday morning. And approximately 150 committees still needed to file as of 4:20pm. Committees historically have always waited until the very last moment to file their reports.
Due to the number of committees that had not filed, SOS staff were working as fast as they could to process filings along with taking over 100 phone calls and even more emails from committees that had questions. Committees that file on paper always take longer to process and if a committee has supporting documents that they send via email those documents must be printed and matched up to the committee’s report before the SOS staff are able to upload to the website.
Secretary Johnson stated, “Ignorance is not an excuse for attacking my office or my staff because a person or group does not understand how campaign finance filings work. My staff has done an excellent job of processing 400 filings in the last two working days.”
More information about campaign finance may be found on the Secretary of State’s website at
https://sdsos.gov/elections-voting/campaign-finance/default.aspx.
###
Ahlers doesn’t have itemized contributions.
Rhoden, no report.
What is going on?