Anti-tech push influences secretary of state race as conventions make state officer nominations

Monae Johnson became South Dakota’s top election official with the help of people who allege elections are rife with fraud and that ballots should be hand-counted, but they’ve been disappointed that she hasn’t implemented some of their proposals. Now they’re trying to replace her with somebody else. Their candidate is state Rep. Heather Baxter, a [

By: Joshua Haiar

Outlets: South Dakota Searchlight

Published: June 13, 2026

Words: 1,686

Last Updated: 3 weeks, 2 days ago

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Monae Johnson became South Dakota’s top election official with the help of people who allege elections are rife with fraud and that ballots should be hand-counted, but they’ve been disappointed that she hasn’t implemented some of their proposals.

Now they’re trying to replace her with somebody else.

Their candidate is state Rep. Heather Baxter, a Rapid City Republican whose website says she “advocates for hand-counted paper ballots, no more voting machines.”

Baxter is challenging …

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