Republican overseeing South Dakota's elections endorses Democrat in succession race

South Dakota’s Republican secretary of state is breaking with her party and endorsing the Democrat running for the office

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- South Dakota’s Republican secretary of state is breaking with her party and endorsing the Democrat running for the office, saying “the integrity, stability, and professionalism of this office is at stake.”

Secretary of State Monae Johnson lost the nomination at the state GOP convention in June to Heather Baxter, a state lawmaker whose campaign website says she aligns with President Donald Trump and his concerns about "inaccurate voter rolls, mail in ballots, and voting machine issues.” A previous statement on Baxter's website said she supported getting rid of voting machines in favor of hand-counting ballots, which has been a theme among those pushing conspiracy theories that voting and ballot counting machines can be rigged.

Johnson said she endorsed Democratic candidate Terrence Davis because he brings law enforcement experience from his years as a state trooper, as well as an educational background in law and policy. The secretary of state’s office on Monday said Johnson would not comment beyond her statement, which was published over the weekend.

“I am a Republican. Terrence is a Democrat. I understand that this decision will disappoint some people in my party and anger others,” Johnson wrote in a column published in South Dakota War College, a conservative politics blog.

It’s not clear what impact the endorsement will have in South Dakota, where no Democrat has held statewide office since 2015. The state has voted overwhelmingly for Trump in the past three presidential elections.

“It’s not surprising that she’d rather back someone who won’t change what she has done,” she said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Baxter sponsored a bill to prohibit the use of automatic tabulating systems, though the legislation ultimately failed.

A previous version of her website stated that she “advocates for hand-counted paper ballots, no more voting machines.” On Monday, Baxter said she altered the wording because she does not have the power to change the way ballots are tallied and she trusts auditors ”to do what’s best for their counties.”

Hand-counting ballots has been shown to take far longer and is more prone to error than using tabulator machines.

Baxter, who won election to the Legislature two years ago, said Trump’s agenda on voting and elections is generally a “reinforcement of current election laws.”

Since taking office for his second term, Trump has attempted to federalize election operations, even though the Constitution gives states and in some cases Congress that authority. He has tried to put the Postal Service at the center of deciding which voters can receive a mail ballot, attempted to impose a proof-of-citizenship requirement for registering to vote in this year's midterms and pushed a narrative that noncitizens are marring U.S.