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• Shannon County, which is part of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, has no courthouse, and it contracts with nearby Fall River County for some services, including elections. Twenty-five residents of Shannon County filed a lawsuit in early 2012 seeking to get the same 46 days of early voting as residents of other counties. Without a voting station in Shannon County, county residents would have had to travel nearly an hour or more to cast in-person absentee ballots at the Fall River County courthouse.
• After the lawsuit was filed, state and local officials set up an in-person absentee voting station in Pine Ridge village for last year's primary and general election. Those officials later pledged to use federal voting assistance funds to operate an early voting station in Pine Ridge through the 2018 election.
• Those who filed the lawsuit criticized the judge's dismissal of their case, saying there is no guarantee that early voting will be offered in Pine Ridge after 2018. They sought a court order permanently ordering the state to provide early voting in Shannon County.
• But Schreier noted that no one knows whether election laws will change by 2020, whether federal funding will continue to be available for the early voting station, or whether Shannon County will continue contracting with Fall River County for election services. In addition, there is no substantial proof of impending harm to Shannon County voters, she said.
• "For the court to adjudicate this claim now would amount to an advisory opinion based on assumptions and speculation," Schreier wrote.
• Attorneys for the state and the Shannon County residents did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
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• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The execution of a South Dakota inmate convicted of killing a Sioux Falls prison guard has been delayed while he appeals.
• Rodney Berget, 51, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection the week of Jan. 12. In an order dated Monday and released Tuesday, Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson issued a stay of execution while Berget's appeal proceeds.
• Berget pleaded guilty to killing State Penitentiary guard Ronald Johnson during a botched escape attempt in April 2011. The state Supreme Court in January overturned his initial death sentence because justices said Circuit Judge Brad Zell improperly considered a statement Berget made to a psychiatrist. Zell resentenced him to death last May. Berget's attorney, Jeff Larson, last week requested a stay of execution while he appeals.

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