NEW POLL SHOWS SOUTH DAKOTANS OPPOSE BUILDING PRISON AT LINCOLN COUNTY SITE
SOUTH DAKOTA (Stu Whitney / South Dakota News Watch) – More than half of South Dakotans oppose building a new men’s state prison in rural Lincoln County, according to a poll co-sponsored by South Dakota News Watch, another blow to a project that failed to secure final funding during the 2025 legislative session.
The statewide survey, also sponsored by the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota, showed that 52% of voters are against using the Lincoln County site, while 34% are for it and 14% are not sure.
The South Dakota Department of Corrections began site preparation earlier this year on state-owned farmland between Canton and Harrisburg for the estimated $825 million project. But resistance from state legislators and nearby property owners led Gov. Larry Rhoden to declare a “reset” on the issue in late February.
Rhoden formed a task force chaired by Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen to study the issue and explore new site possibilities leading up to a special legislative session on July 22.
“The Lincoln County site is not the only option – all options are on the table for the prison task force,” Venhuizen told News Watch in reaction to the poll results.
“Building a prison is like going to the dentist. No one is excited about it, but it’s the responsible thing to do. I’m pretty sure that releasing inmates early because there’s nowhere to keep them would be even less popular.”
Opposition to the originally proposed site was strongest in the Sioux Falls Metro area, which includes Lincoln County, with 57% of respondents against it, followed by West River (52%), East River/North (51%) and East River/South (44%).
Mixed results for legislators in 2025
Backlash over the prison plan was part of a broader grassroots movement to safeguard property rights that started as resistance to a planned carbon capture pipeline in South Dakota and other states.
That populist movement within the South Dakota Republican Party led to hard-right candidates being elected to the state Legislature and thrust into leadership roles, where they spearheaded legislation prohibiting the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines.
“The property rights issue created a lot of change,” said GOP county official Jeff Hunt, who owns a ranch south of Dupree on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. “My daughter (Jana Hunt) is a legislator and that’s why she ran, and that’s why she won.”
The poll showed that South Dakotans are divided on whether the 2025 Legislature was successful in tackling issues that impact the lives of state residents.
Asked whether they agreed that lawmakers “addressed the needs and concerns of state residents” during the session, 45% said they disagreed with that statement, while 43% agreed.
But while 22% said they strongly disagreed with the statement, only 9% said they strongly agreed.
Dan Ahlers, executive director of the South Dakota Democratic Party, cited the poll results as proof of a “disconnect” between South Dakota residents and the state GOP, which holds 96 of the 105 seats in the Legislature.
“While the percentages are fairly close, the number of people that strongly disagree is quite high,” Ahlers told News Watch. “Take into account that most South Dakotans are either registered Republican or lean conservative, and these results should be even more alarming.”
Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy conducted the poll April 9-11 using random selections from a telephone-matched state voter registration list that included both landline and cellphone numbers.
Residents support changing vote threshold
The poll showed that South Dakotans support a 2026 ballot measure initiated by legislators that would raise the percentage of statewide voters needed to pass constitutional amendments to 60%.
Of those polled, 47% support the measure, which would match Florida and Illinois for the highest voting threshold among the 18 states that allow for constitutional amendments through the ballot initiative process.
The measure was opposed by 40% of respondents, with 13% undecided.
State Rep. John Hughes of Sioux Falls, the amendment’s Republican sponsor, said it is meant to highlight the difference between initiated measures, which impact state statutes, and initiated amendments, which change the state constitution.
“I think all of us would agree that a constitution is different than a statute,” Hughes said. “It’s intended to be much more permanent.”
Rick Weiland, whose Dakotans for Health organization has been a frequent sponsor of ballot measures, pointed out that South Dakota passed 11 laws from 2018 to 2024 to make direct democracy more difficult, the most of any state.
“They’re attempting to orchestrate the death of direct democracy by a thousand cuts,” Weiland told News Watch.
Poll: No major change with populist rise
In a separate survey that polled 500 registered Republicans, voters were asked about the populist movement within the state Republican Party and how that trend has changed their perception of how the party represents residents.
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of respondents said there has been no change in their view of the party, while 25% said the shift has made the party more representative of Republican voters. Only 6% said that the party has become less representative.
Julia Hellwege, an associate political science professor at USD and director of the Chiesman Center, said the numbers reveal differences between the political perception of legislators and the general public, at least among Republicans.
“I think the (populist) legislators who were voted in would say, ‘Look, we’ve made such a difference. We are making the party wider and more representative,’” Hellwege said. “And the establishment politicians are saying, ‘Oh my gosh, look at this crazy change that is making the party weaker because of all the infighting and not being on the same page.’ And meanwhile the poll shows that the public is like, ‘No, everything is fine. We don’t really see a difference.’”
EXPLORATORY DRILLING PROJECTS THREATEN IMPORTANT BLACK HILLS CULTURAL SITES ACCORDING TO ACTIVISTS
RAPID CITY, S.D. (Joshua Haiar / South Dakota Searchlight) – An environmental organization and a Native American advocacy group say two important Black Hills cultural and historical sites face threats from exploratory drilling projects.
One of the projects is proposed by Rapid City-based Pete Lien and Sons. It wants to conduct exploratory drilling for graphite on national forest land near Pe’ Sla, also known as Reynolds Prairie, which is a high-elevation meadow in the central Black Hills. Graphite is used in electric vehicle batteries, lubricants, pencils and other products.
Pe’ Sla is a ceremonial site for Lakota people, and it figures prominently in traditional Lakota creation stories.
“Drilling at Pe’ Sla would be like drilling under the Vatican or at a sacred site in Jerusalem,” said Taylor Gunhammer, an Oglala Lakota, in a news release. “Under any circumstances, it is not a place to be considering mining.”
In response to questions from South Dakota Searchlight, a representative of Pete Lien and Sons said the U.S. Forest Service is reviewing the plan’s potential impact on sites of cultural and historical significance in the proposed project area, and questions and concerns should be directed to that agency.
Gunhammer is a local organizer with NDN Collective, a Native American advocacy group in Rapid City. NDN and the Black Hills Clean Water Alliance are encouraging people to submit comments on the Pete Lien and Sons project and another project that could affect Craven Canyon in the southern Black Hills.
That’s where a Canadian company, Clean Nuclear Energy Corp., plans to conduct exploratory drilling for uranium on state-owned land located seven miles north of Edgemont. Uranium is the primary ingredient in nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants.
The Black Hills Clean Water Alliance and NDN said Craven Canyon contains 7,000-year-old cultural and historical sites of importance to Indigenous tribes, historians and archeologists.
A representative of Clean Nuclear Energy Corp., Mike Blady, said in email correspondence with South Dakota Searchlight that the proposed exploration area has been explored and mined previously. A letter to the company from state regulators last year said the area is within a quarter-mile of the edge of Craven Canyon, but Blady said the area is over a mile away.
“We are aware of the cultural significance and are doing everything in our power to ensure that there is no collateral damage,” Blady wrote. “We have consulted with the state and federal government as well as hosting an open house for Indigenous groups and are confident that there will not be adverse effects.
Meanwhile, another company, enCore Energy, hopes to mine uranium in the Edgemont area. Its various state and federal mining permit applications have been bogged down in administrative and court appeals for years.
The Clean Nuclear Energy Corp. drilling proposal will be considered by the state Board of Minerals and Environment. The Pete Lien and Sons proposal is under consideration by the supervisor of the Black Hills National Forest. Both proposals are open for public comment.
911 BOARD PLANS NEW GRANT PROGRAM TO SUPPORT EFFICIENCY AND CONSOLIDATION OF CALL CENTERS
PIERRE, S.D. (Makenzie Huber / SD Searchlight) – A South Dakota board overseeing the 911 emergency system approved a plan Thursday to create a grant program helping call centers pay for technology upgrades. The program is possible because of an increase to the state’s 911 surcharge lawmakers approved in recent years, board members said.
The monthly, per-line charge applies to landline and cellphone service, and is used to help local governments fund their 911 call centers. Legislators and then-Gov. Kristi Noem adopted a 75-cent increase in the surcharge last year, from $1.25 to $2. Lawmakers and Gov. Larry Rhoden made the increase permanent this year.
Before last year, lawmakers had not increased the surcharge since 2012, and it was supporting only 30% of local call centers’ operational costs while local governments funded the rest, said Jason Husby, the state’s 911 coordinator. He told board members the increased surcharge is covering about 45% of those costs.
Seventy percent of revenue from the surcharge is remitted to the local agency where the surcharge was collected, and 30% is deposited into the 911 coordination fund overseen by the state Department of Public Safety.
The increase raised the state’s surcharge revenue from $2.8 million in fiscal year 2024 to $3.1 million in fiscal year 2025. Husby told board members that some of those extra funds can go toward creating a continuous grant program for 911 call centers to make necessary improvements. Considering other costs paid by the coordination fund, he said it’ll leave about $80,000 a month to use for call center grants.
South Dakota is ahead of other states regarding its 911 infrastructure, Husby said. The state set up redundancies in case a call center is offline or overwhelmed, rerouting incoming calls to the nearest dispatcher. That redundancy was used during statewide 911 outages in April and July last year.
The next step is to extend that redundancy and coordination to emergency responders through improved radio networks. The improvement was recommended in the state’s 911 efficiency study, published in January.
Board member and Watertown Police Chief Tim Toomey said the surcharge increase was a “lifesaver” for his local 911 call center. The agency was “hundreds of thousands of dollars in a deficit,” and the surcharge increase for the locality is filling in the gap.
But technology replacement costs, such as radio equipment, are “staggering” to the point “that our city cannot even fathom a budget for that,” Toomey said, requiring additional support.
The grants can also be used to facilitate consolidation among several call centers currently discussing the matter, Husby said.
“There are upfront costs if County A and County B want to combine, and I would hate for those upfront costs to dissuade what would be an eventual efficiency,” Husby said. “To me, that’s where I see the board come in to fund and review the cost to move radios, technology and all the things together. We can help those governments and, in the end, they’re becoming more efficient.”
The board unanimously approved of the grant program. Husby hopes to move the program forward quickly to assist call centers “in desperate need” of radio updates. He said he’ll provide a more detailed plan at the board’s next meeting in June.
