South Dakota Secretary of State Monae Johnson testifies before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Appropriations on Feb. 11, 2025, at the Capitol in Pierre. (Photo by John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight).
A legislative committee voted unanimously on Thursday to order South Dakota’s secretary of state to answer questions about the state’s election equipment contracts.
Secretary of State Monae Johnson was expected to attend Thursday’s meeting, but canceled a couple of days beforehand, said Sen. Taffy Howard, R-Rapid City, the chair of the Government Operations and Audit Committee.
“We represent the entirety of the Legislature and we represent the citizens of this state,” Howard said. “Essentially, when you disregard this committee, you are disregarding the citizens of this state.”
The order to appear is known as a subpoena. The committee is using expanded oversight powers granted by the Legislature earlier this year to issue subpoenas, without an extra sign-off from the Legislature’s Executive Board.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Tea Republican Sen. Ernie Otten said the committee was “being slighted” by Johnson’s failure to appear, adding that lawmakers need to hear “the other side” of allegations against Johnson’s office.
Members of the South Dakota Canvassing Group, which advocates for removing tabulation machines from elections and replacing them with hand counting, allege that the Secretary of State’s Office allowed an election systems vendor to provide uncertified laptops to some counties for election use, and used some funds inappropriately to update the state’s voter registration and election night reporting system. The group is also concerned about a vendor connected to a multi-state voter registration system that has come under scrutiny for privacy and security concerns.
Some of those concerns were raised by members of South Dakota Canvassing at the committee’s May meeting, but lawmakers chose to have Johnson return at a later meeting to answer questions posed to her.
The South Dakota Secretary of State’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.