OFFICIAL OPINION No. 23-03 Concerning Voting in Road District Elections
QUESTIONS:
1.) If a landowner owns more than one lot, tract, or parcel of land within a road district, is that landowner entitled to only one vote in road district elections?
2.) Is absentee voting allowed in road district elections?
ANSWERS:
1.) An owner of land within a road district is entitled to only one vote in road district elections regardless of the number of parcels of land owned within the district.
2.) Absentee voting is available in road district formation elections, initial board of trustee elections in road districts with more than one thousand eligible voters, and in road district referendum elections. Absentee voting is not available in initial board of trustee elections in road districts with less than one thousand eligible voters, and in annual trustee elections in road districts of any size.
Something to note here is the term “Absentee Voting.” This term does not simply mean landowners who are not physically present. The term implies, as stated in SDCL 12-19-1. Absentee ballot–Persons entitled to vote.
A registered voter who is not otherwise disqualified by law from voting in the election may vote by absentee ballot.
The landowner must be a registered voter in the state of South Dakota. The use of this phrase is causing a little confusion because the SDCL 31-12A implies any landowner can vote for or against the formation of a road district. However, this SDCL implies that the landowner must be a registered voter in order for him to be ‘absent.’ This will not be the only time that two SDCLs seem in conflict. We’ll get more into this as we get more information.
In OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 14-01 Absentee voting period for municipal elections, we see “The application of SDCL 12-1-2 and the well-recognized rule that “…statutory construction dictate[s] that ‘statutes of specific application take precedence over statutes of general application’”…