SCOUTING YESTERDAY | Election integrity alarms grip South Dakota politics, spark newspaper feuds

This week in South Dakota history: Oct. 25-31

Polling place ca. 1900. Photo: Wikimedia

South Dakota voters were facing their first voter registration deadline 125 years ago.

Following the 1898 election that brought rampant allegations of voter fraud, the state Legislature in 1899 made changes lawmakers thought would strengthen election integrity.

A law establishing a voter registration deadline a week ahead of any election was among them, and with a handful of judicial, county and other local offices on ballots around the state, newspapers were alerting readers to get signed up.

“ATTENTION, VOTERS. Every man who expects to vote at the November election must register,” read a editor’s note in the Oct. 28, 1899, edition of the the Lawrence County newspaper, The News-Record.

Blurred lines: Accusations of deception crescendo before Election Day