County receives $6.7 million grant for five road safety projects

The Lincoln County Board of Commission met Thursday, Nov. 5 . Commissioners heard agenda items including the canvas of the November 3 General Election and the post election audit. 

Auditor Sheri Lund requested a county canvas of the November 3 General Election with action to follow. 

“I want to take a moment to thank all of the precinct election workers who helped with not only this election, but every election that we held this year. This was the year of elections never ending. Our office simply could not conduct elections without the dedication and hard work of these individuals. Lincoln County is extremely fortunate to have so many outstanding election workers who continue to return year after year. Working an election is not an easy job, it requires long hours, patience, attention to detail, and a commitment to serving our voters. We are incredibly grateful for their willingness to step up and serve Lincoln County and I want to thank each and every one of them,” Lund said. 

“Lincoln County had a total of 51,695 registered voters with 26,628 ballots cast resulting in an overall voter turnout of 51.51% beating the statewide rate of 49.37% Two provisional ballots were cast during this election, both were reviewed by the Auditor’s Office and were unable to locate a voter registration form for either individual and as a result neither of the provisional ballots will be counted. The election day and election night reporting process went smoothly, our precinct workers, election staff, and county personnel worked diligently throughout the day to ensure voters were served efficiently and election procedures were followed,” she continued. 

As part of the canvas, the board reviewed each precinct individually and compared the election night results with the official county canvas. Commissioner Joel Arends asked Auditor Lund what percentage of people voted in person absentee and how many people voted in the mail absentee. “We had a total of 5,459 absentees with 4,293 in person 1,230 returned by mail 1,396 that were mailed, and a total of 5,523 received by 7 p.m. on election day,” Lund responded. 

“Other than those 30 ballots that didn’t have a stamp overall, do you know how many spoiled ballots there were county wide?” Arends asked. 

“I don’t, when they bring in the information, they have that in an envelope that is put aside and it’s nothing we’ve ever really tracked. I know we had 20 to 25 at the counter, but we wouldn’t have any idea of that until Kayla at some point goes through the briefcases,” Lund responded. 

A motion to approve and execute the abstract of the results of the votes cast for each of the candidates and each of the issues by Herman Otten; motion carried unanimously. 

Lund held the post election audit drawing which will be held on Tuesday, Nov.  17 at 9 a.m. The purpose of the audit is to verify the accuracy of the election results by manually counting votes and comparing those totals to the results reported by the voting equipment. Precincts included in the audit are: Precinct 25 and Sioux Falls 1-20, United States Representative, Constitutional Amendment I, and State Treasurer. 

Commissioner Arends asked for public comment for items not on the agenda and Terry Fluit stood to speak. 

“Back in May we approved our Safe Streets for All safety plan and with that we were going to apply for an implementation grant. We did bundle five different projects and Friday I got notification that we were awarded this grant. So we’ll be having five projects coming up in the wings, some of these are in the five-year plan. There are some of them that are not, but I think the next step is to be hearing from federal highway because we’ll have to get an agreement with them on this and my guess is it probably won’t happen until mid-next year, but the project down by Hudson that is approved in the budget for next year, we are going to pull that project because it was one of the projects that was in this bundle that we got awarded through the grant. The other projects include the Parker shortcut North of Lennox, Western Avenue and 271st, 271st and Southeastern Avenue, and 273rd and Louise Avenue,” Fluit said. It was reported to the commission the total of the grant dollars was over $6.7 million for a project total cost estimate of $8.4. “It’s an 80/20 split and we’ll have to do a 20% match on these projects,” he continued.