SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — More than 14 hours after the polls closed, counting continues in Minnehaha County. Several local legislative races are still waiting to be called.

In roughly 90-minuted period from 7 a.m. to 8:29 a.m., the county tallied four precincts, 44 to 48, according to the county’s website.

As of 3 p.m. the county had 81 of 81 precincts reported, with just over 95,600 ballots tallied. There more than 66,900 votes on Election Day and more than 28,700 absentee ballots.

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At 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, Republican Rep. Tony Venhuizen said it was “embarrassing” there was very limited election results from Minnehaha County.

“It’s embarrassing that the State of Florida has 98% of its vote counted and we have practically nothing from Minnehaha County. We need to fix this,” Venhuizen said on X.

County auditor Leah Anderson has been here since 6 a.m. Tuesday and KELOLAND News caught up with her at about 8 a.m. Tuesday.

She said at that time, they were making good progress. They were almost done with absentee ballots and had three machines working on Election Day ballots, but she explained why the counting process has been slow.

“We have a lot of ballots going to resolution,” Anderson said. “Sometimes that’s due to voters not marking the ballot well. So we have to send it to resolution because the tabulator isn’t reading it properly. And then they do whatever corrections need to be made to make sure that ballot is counted the way the voter intended.”

Former Minnehaha Commissioner Jeff Barth was volunteering at the Minnehaha courthouse on election night. He said the focus needs to be on finishing the vote.

Poll workers still counting ballots on Nov. 6

“There is just not enough room in the courthouse to bring in enough people to get it accomplished in a reasonable amount of time,” Barth said. “I think the Auditor did the best she could with the space, but I think they need a much bigger space.”

Barth said voters need to make sure they understand who and what they are voting for.

“People made a lot of mistakes on their ballots, I worked in ballot resolution and people were voting for Trump and Kennedy quite a bit for example.” Barth said. “It slows everything down when you have people making that kind of a mistake, the rest of their ballot counts, but if you vote for more than one presidential candidate your vote does not count.”

Democratic Rep. Linda Duba also posted about the lengthy ballot counting process in Minnehaha County.

“It’s sad that entire states have counted their ballots and Minnehaha County can’t get it done. The County Commission should insist the auditor present/provide the ballot tabulation process. The current process is unacceptable,” Duba posted on X.

8 p.m. Tuesday

Anderson says she was hoping to start tabulating ballots earlier, but that things were going slowly.

She said a few ballots were ran around 4:30 p.m., but “not many at all.”

Watching the four tabulation machines from the viewing area, there were many stops and a slow progression. “It’s ballots that have to go to resolution (ballots with questionable markings) and it just takes a while,” said Anderson.

She explained that these questionable ballots, which may have over-votes or missed marks on the ballot, go to the top bin and are reviewed by the resolution board.

“We want to make sure, was it a pen rest (a mark from someone resting their pen tip on the ballot), or was it an actual over-vote,” said Anderson.

Anderson was asked what the timeline was now looking like considering the slow start. “Oh, we’ll be here till morning hours, I’m sure,” she said. “We’ll be here tomorrow working.”

Previous updates can be found below.

Minnehaha County has 136,817 registered voters, accounting for over 20% of South Dakota’s registered voters.

The United States Department of Justice monitored voting in Minnehaha County, one of four counties in South Dakota to receive this oversight.

KELOLAND’s Perry Groton was live at the Minnehaha County Commission chambers where the county is tabulating ballots. He said while ballot counting began around 4:30 p.m., counting was stopped quickly due to “questionable ballots,” at which time he said the county’s resolution board stepped in to determine what to do with questionable markings on the ballots.

The DOJ made the announcement last week that it would be monitoring 86 jurisdictions in 27 states for compliance with federal voting rights laws.

Anderson said these DOJ watchers have been out at precincts observing, and that she has had limited interaction with them aside from introducing them to poll workers and providing needed information.

“I haven’t been informed of anything, but I’m sure they’re putting their list together of things that they might get back to us on,” said Anderson.

The county began counting its around 30,000 absentee ballots at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

At noon, Anderson told KELOLAND News she expects arounds 30,000 absentee ballots to be processed Tuesday. 

She said she is expecting “a very long” night at the county administration building.

“We’ve had a lot of long nights leading up to today,” Anderson said.

As of around 5:30 p.m., Anderson told KELOLAND that some precincts in the county were running low on ballots, but that they were being resupplied.