Auditor Outlines Absentee Voting Benchmarks for 2026 Primaries; Receives Opioid Settlement Cash
- Steve Jurrens
- May 18
- 1 min read
Northeast Radio SD News – Watertown, SD - Absentee voting operations are actively underway across Codington County ahead of the anticipated 2026 Primary Election cycle, according to a comprehensive departmental report delivered by County Auditor Brenda Hanten during Tuesday’s Commissioner meeting.
As of 5:00 p.m. on Monday, the Auditor’s Office recorded exactly 210 successfully cast absentee ballots. Historical voter data compiled by Hanten shows this figure is just 11 ballots below the exact figure recorded during the primary cycle two years prior, suggesting stable and predictable voter participation models. At present, the county courthouse remains the sole authorized polling location for all active absentee ballot processing.
The Auditor’s staff is currently working on multiple fronts, processing mandatory primary election publications, verifying data sheets, and dispatching legal notices to official regional newspapers. Concurrently, the office has initiated the preliminary stages of the upcoming fiscal cycle, actively collecting 2027 statutory budget requests from all primary county department heads.
Hanten announced that the county recently cleared its first targeted Opioid Settlement payout allocation for the 2026/2027 cycle. The newly received electronic fund transfer, totaling $1,360.18, has been deposited directly into the county’s restricted Opioid remediation treasury. This latest transaction brings the total cumulative balance of the remediation fund to $89,446.50, which remains legally earmarked for county-wide substance abuse prevention and public health recovery programming.
