By 
By Kevin Killough
South Dakota News Watch
Registered voters in South Dakota indicate a high degree of confidence in state government, especially compared to their level of trust in the federal government, according to a new scientific poll co-sponsored by South Dakota News Watch.
A majority of South Dakota voters surveyed in the poll are confident in state government, with 70% saying they are very confident or somewhat confident in state government. Another 29% said they are not too confident or not at all confident, and 2% were unsure.
Only half of voters said they were confident in the presidency, and a third were confident in Congress.
The results on confidence in the state government showed a partisan divide, as did confidence in the federal government. The poll found that 52% of Democrats indicated they are very or somewhat confident in state government and 82% of Republicans indicated they are very or somewhat confident.
“I think to some extent that’s to be expected by the actions of state government. This is a Republican-dominated state, and Democratic voters would be less satisfied because the Legislature probably isn’t enacting laws that they would like,” said Michael Card, emeritus professor of political science at the University of South Dakota.
Registered voters were also asked if the South Dakota Legislature spends its time on the most pressing issues of the state. More than half (57%) of voters said the state’s lawmakers spend a great deal or a fair amount of their time working on the most pressing issues. Another 36% said the legislators spend not very much or none of their time on these issues, while 8% were unsure.
South Dakotans generally view public officials in the state as accountable to its residents, with 66% saying they are very or somewhat accountable. Another 32% said they are not too accountable or not at all accountable, and 2% were unsure.
There were some partisan differences in the results of this question. A majority of Democrats (56%) said public officials are not too accountable or not at all accountable, whereas that was true for only 18% of Republicans. For Independents, 58% said public officials are very or somewhat accountable, and 38% said they are not too accountable or not at all accountable.
Takeaway: Higher confidence than federal government
Jon Schaff, professor of political science at Northern State University in Aberdeen, said the numbers show that South Dakotans are supportive of their state government, with Democrats also showing high levels of confidence.
The Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota, which co-sponsored the poll, published the “South Dakota State of Democracy Report” in 2023, which included results from a Mason-Dixon poll of 500 voters in South Dakota conducted in 2021 and co-sponsored by News Watch.
The figures in this latest poll show only a slight change from 2021, and even Democrats increased their confidence in the last few years, said Julia Hellwege, University of South Dakota associate professor in political science and director of the Chiesman Center.
Takeaway: Not proportional to voter population
The statistical distribution of voters’ attitudes toward how the Legislature is spending its time is normal, with most voters (57%) thinking lawmakers are spending a great deal or a fair amount of their time on the important issues.
However, the Legislature is skewed toward the Republican Party, and about 23% of registered voters in South Dakota are Democrats. The expectation, then, is the numbers should follow a distribution curve similar to that of the voter population, Hellwege said.
“Given that the Legislature is so skewed, if the population was equally skewed, then these numbers should also be skewed. But since these numbers are normally distributed, that sort of indicates we know that it’s not proportional. For example, there’s nine Republican legislators for every one Democrat. And that’s not what the voter population looks like,” she said.
Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy conducted the poll of 500 registered voters from all parties Oct. 16-19 using random selections from a telephone-matched state voter registration list that included both landline and cellphone numbers from across the state. Quotas were assigned to reflect voter registration by county. The margin for error is no more than plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit organization. Read more stories and donate at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email to get stories when they’re published. Contact statehouse investigative reporter Kevin Killough at [email protected].
