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• Casey said that if the EAC would have to approve changes to the state plan, "then we're back to square one because they don't exist for all intents and purposes."
• "I don't know what 'review' consists of when they don't have a quorum," Casey said. "They can't take any action."
• Bret Healy, a consultant for Four Directions, said HAVA money has already been used to establish similar early voting offices in Shannon and Todd counties.
• Gant has argued that those counties are different because they don't have courthouses that can provide voting services.
• Healy said Gant's argument distracts from the real issue: voting access for Native Americans.
• Semans said South Dakota and its counties have more than $9 million in HAVA funds and the effort would cost less than $50,000.
• Casey said he's glad that Gant has re-established the HAVA task force, which will include Board of Elections members, advocates for persons with disabilities, political party representatives, state legislators, county auditors and representatives of tribal governments.
• "Every time we've had HAVA plans and revisions of those plans it's been adopted by the respective task forces," he said.
• Gant said the task force should be able to have its first meeting in October.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Two Sioux Falls businessmen say the South Dakota Department of Transportation has greatly undervalued land taken for an Interstate 90 project.
• Property owners Tom Walsh and Robert Miller want more than $500,000 for the properties for a new Cliff Avenue interchange.
• But in the DOT's petition to condemn the land, the agency determined just compensation to be $20,100 on one of the properties.
• Everyone involved met Monday in preparation for a trial scheduled for January.
• An attorney for the state asked the judge to rule in the DOT's favor without going to trial. The lawyer for Walsh and Miller asked that they present their own land appraisals.
• Circuit Judge Susan Sabers declined to rule on either motion but told the attorneys she'd make a decision within two weeks.
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