Dr. Blanchard takes a moment to post the results of Nielson Brothers' last poll of the 2012 South Dakota election.

In the U.S. House race, Rep. Kristi Noem still leads Matt Varilek 49.3% to 43.6%. Noem still shows no clear sign of having built on her vote total from 2010. Noem's job approval is at 53.4%, but 28.9% "strongly disapprove" of her performance, while 24.4% "strongly approve." Not quite one out of four voters think Kristi is doing a heckuva job... but that's still one out of four people who can't see through Noem's rodeo tricks and photo ops to realize she hasn't done anything for the last two years.

NBP finds Matt McGovern still hot on Kristie Fiegen's heels. Fiegen leads McGovern 38.6% to 36.5%. Remarkably, NBP finds Libertarian Russell Clarke drawing 8.5% in that race, entirely from Fiegen's slice of the electoral pie. Clarke shows that the margin of error among South Dakota voters is increasing.

NBP continues to find the Public Utilities Commission Race hopeless for Nick Nemec: incumbent Chris Nelson almost doubles him up, 55.1% to 28.7%. NBP found a similar margin for Nelson back in July. Maybe alongside his simple popularity, Nelson enjoys some subtle reinforcement from guilt-assuaging Republicans who picked Kristi Noem over him in 2010 and who suffer under the bumbling ministrations of Jason Gant in Nelson's old chair at the Secretary of State's office.

And of course, Romney is going to win South Dakota. NBP finds Romney ahead by 10%.

NBP will release final numbers on the ballot issues shortly.