South Dakota school board elections, 2026

South Dakota 2026 elections

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Elections

State profile

Additional elections

No South Dakota school districts that overlap with the nation's 100 largest cities or that are among the nation's 200 largest school districts and for which Ballotpedia provides comprehensive coverage are holding school board elections in 2026.

Election rules

View election rules

Election dates and frequency

See also: Rules governing school board election dates and timing

School board elections in South Dakota must be held in each district between the second Tuesday in April and the third Tuesday in June every year. The school district board determines the election date for the district. School districts can but are not required to consolidate their elections with municipal elections on one of three dates: the second Tuesday in April, the first Tuesday after the first Monday in June, or the third Tuesday in June. In 2023, 52% of districts scheduled their elections for the second Tuesday in April, 22% of districts scheduled their elections for the Tuesday after the first Monday in June, and 20% of districts scheduled their elections for the third Tuesday in June. The remaining 6% had unknown 2023 election date schedules or scheduled their elections for different unconsolidated dates.

See law: South Dakota Statute section 13-7-10

Election system

School board members in South Dakota are elected through nonpartisan general elections without primaries.

See law: South Dakota Statute section 13-7-10

Party labels on the ballot

See also: Rules governing party labels in school board elections

School board elections in South Dakota are nonpartisan, which means party labels do not appear on the ballot for school board candidates. South Dakota Statute Section 13-7-13 concerning the ballots for school district elections states, "No party affiliation may appear on the ballot and the names of the candidates for the respective vacancies shall be printed on the ballot."

See law: South Dakota Statute section 13-7-13

Winning an election

The candidate or candidates who receive the most votes are elected to the open seat or seats that are up for election.

See law: South Dakota Statute section 13-7-10

Term length and staggering

School board members have three-year terms. Initial terms for school board members of newly formed districts or school board member seats that were newly added to increase the total number of board members are set to be one, two, or three years to stagger elections.

See law: South Dakota Statute section 13-8-2

As close to one-third of school board seats as possible are up for regular election every year.

See law: South Dakota Statute section 13-7-10

Representation: at large vs. by sub-district

School board members can be elected at large, by representation area (sub-district), or a combination of the two. School board members are elected at large by default, but school boards or voters through a ballot measure can establish school board representation areas. As of 2022, 143 districts (96%) elected all of their school board members at large, four districts (3%) elected all of their school board members from sub-districts, and two districts (1%) used a combination of the two.

See law: South Dakota Statute section 13-8-7

Filing deadlines and swearing-in dates

The candidate filing deadline for school board candidates is 39 days before the election unless the election is consolidated with a municipal election and the municipal election filing period dates are used.

See law: South Dakota Statute section 13-7-6

Newly elected school board members officially take office at the school board's annual meeting, which is held by default on the second Monday of July. The school board may set a different date for its annual meeting.

See law: South Dakota Statute section 13-8-10

Recalls

See also: Recall campaigns in South Dakota and School board recalls

South Dakota does not allow for the recall of school board members. Click here for a list of states that do.

State profile

Demographic data for South Dakota
	South Dakota	U.S.
Total population:	857,919	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	75,811	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	85%	73.6%
Black/African American:	1.6%	12.6%
Asian:	1.2%	5.1%
Native American:	8.6%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.6%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	3.3%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	90.9%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	27%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$50,957	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	15.3%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in South Dakota. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in South Dakota

South Dakota voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, five are located in South Dakota, accounting for 2.43 percent of the total pivot counties.^[1]

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. South Dakota had four Retained Pivot Counties and one Boomerang Pivot County, accounting for 2.21 and 4.00 percent of all Retained and Boomerang Pivot Counties, respectively.

More South Dakota coverage on Ballotpedia

Footnotes

↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.

[1] The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.

[1]

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South Dakota school board elections, 2026

Contents

Election rules

Election dates and frequency

Election system

Party labels on the ballot

Winning an election

Term length and staggering

Representation: at large vs. by sub-district

Filing deadlines and swearing-in dates

Recalls

State profile

Presidential voting pattern

Pivot Counties (2016)

Pivot Counties (2020)

See also

Footnotes

Information about voting

2026 Elections

2025 Elections

Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

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