Senate elections in South Dakota aren’t necessarily nail-biters, but occasionally they can be. Back in 1996, which was a presidential election year, Democrat Tim Johnson defeated incumbent Republican Larry Pressler by a 51%-49% margin (Tim Johnson, 166,533 votes, Larry Pressler 157,954 votes). Just over 8,500 votes separated them. In the same election cycle, Illinois’ Dick Durbin was elected to the Senate with 2,384,028 votes. Obviously, it is easier to influence a statewide election in South Dakota than it is in Illinois. That’s why people should pay attention to the work that Daily Kos has done to help Native Americans get registered to vote in South Dakota.
The polls don’t look promising, which is a shame. But one thing is for sure. If there’s a shocker out of South Dakota on election day, we’ll know who to thank, and that’s everyone who has contributed to or worked on the effort to register people on the reservations and get them to the polls.