South Dakota 2025 Issues Poll Summary

Publication date: October 28th, 2024
Written by: Travis N. Taylor PHD

The Center for Excellence in Polling recently surveyed likely voters in South Dakota on a range of issues from education to election integrity.

In addition to supporting reforms on taxes and fees, school choice, and state investing, voters support reforms that move people from welfare to work and make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in South Dakota’s elections.

South Dakotans support reforms to unemployment insurance designed to move people quickly back into the workforce.

65%

…of likely voters support requiring individuals on unemployment to perform at least one meaningful work-search activity each business day. An identical number of South Dakotans say they support requiring the state to verify unemployment work-search activity reports.

60%

…of likely voters support unemployment indexing, a practice of tying the duration of unemployment eligibility to the state’s unemployment rate. Indexing is supported by nearly three in four (72%) Republicans, a majority (57%) of Independents, and a plurality (44%) of Democrats.

Six in ten voters support commonsense reforms to bolster the security of South Dakota’s elections.

61%

…of likely voters support creating a special unit that investigates election law violations. An overwhelming number of Republican voters—82 percent—support this measure, while a 13-point plurality of Independents are in favor.

59%

…of likely voters support requiring the state to conduct a comprehensive voter roll audit twice per year. A large majority of Republicans (78%) and Independents (51%) express support for this election integrity reform.

Voters are in favor of requiring able-bodied adults to work, train, or volunteer part time as a condition of receiving taxpayer-funded Medicaid benefits.

60%

…of likely voters support requiring able-bodied adults to spend at least 20 hours per week working, training, or volunteering to remain eligible for Medicaid. Support for Medicaid work requirements is strongest among Republican voters (78%), while a plurality (46%) of Independents also express support.

The bottom line

South Dakota lawmakers have the opportunity to pass meaningful, commonsense reforms that enjoy broad support from voters. These reforms would move South Dakota in a direction that aligns with voters’ conservative, work-centric values.