VOTER FRAUD ARREST TO BE MADE - SD

Mobridge SD Tribune ^ | 11/12/02 | LANA JOHNSON

[Elkiejg]

Becky Red Earth-Villeda, also known as Maka Duta, the Flandreau woman hired by the South Dakota Democratic Party to recruit voters, will be arrested for alleged forgery of absentee ballot applications.

According to Attorney General Mark Barnett, Red Earth-Villeda is suspected of forging the signatures on 500 to 1,000 absentee ballot applications in 25 counties statewide, including Dewey County. She will face the multiple charges in Minnehaha County.

"Maka Duta will be arrested in the ordinary course of events," said Barnett. "No evidence has been obtained that shows she has cast or made an attempt to cast actual ballots."

Red Earth-Villeda was interviewed by investigators extensively on Wednesday, Oct. 30.

Hired as an independent contractor, Red Earth-Villeda was fired by the Democratic Party after it was discovered in early October that two of the people she "registered" were invalid. One such "registration" was discovered by Ziebach County Auditor Cindy Longbrake.

Longbrake received a ballot application for Denise Red Horse. The main problem with the application is that it was dated Sept. 21, 18 days after Red Horse had died in an automobile accident. An application for Red Horse was also received in Dewey County.

Dewey County Auditor Adelle Enright said another application for a deceased woman, Marjorie Clown, was also received by her office.

Currently, there are 30 South Dakota Department of Criminal Investigation agents working on the case.

[SD Badlands]

I have been a volunteer for the Thune campaign for 12 months now. I appreciate the comments and concern in this forum. It is great to know someone cares because our local (read liberal-leaning) media ARE NOT covering this issue. I can tell you that I had three calls at my home last week from people on the reservation near me who knew of my involement with the campaign wanting to tell me their stories of "shennanigans". (I'll leave the words "voter fraud" for the legal minds.) It was rampant. Thune will be making a statement today (the day the votes are cancassed). I am hoping for a call for a recount. As much as I'd like to see John come away with the victory in this election, it is even more important that the Dems are revealed for what they done. Thune is somewhat limited as to what he can do here. He has a very bright political future which he puts in jeopardy if he is perceived as "whining". The RNC MUST CARRY THE BALL here. Please email them at info@rnc.org and urge them to get actively involved. The native Americans in our state do not pay property taxes, motor vehicle tax, etc, yet they are able to "steal" and election like this. If it can happen in SD (only 400k voters), it can and will happen anywhere.

[sweetliberty]

Are the Republicans in South Dakota brain dead???? Why aren't they vigourously pursuing this and closely scrutinizing ballots cast in the questionable counties, which incidentally are the same counties that put Johnson over the top by barely over 500 votes, less than 1/4 of 1%? Thune should be demanding a recount!

[Leto]

It seems to me that a recount would be a waste of time, you would merely be recounting fraudulent ballots. I think if wide spread fraud is shown (enough to affect the outcome) then a special election should be called between the 2 leading candidates.

If fraud is shown to exist the Senate could refuse to seat either candidate and send it back to SD for a special election.

The investigation is the important part here, both in the short and long term. THise guilty of fraud need to get tough sentences, as a deterrent. This will also pave the way for tougher laws to prevent fraud, to aviod disenfranchising legitimate voters.

Don't frame the debate in partisan terms, make it tougher for the rats to openly oppose the reforms and tough penalities.

If we were to eliminate fraud it would be worth over 5 million votes nationally.

[hchutch]

Agreed.

What the Senate ought to do in January, when the new one starts, is to conditionally seat Johnson pending the results of the FBI investigation. I do think we have enough smoke here for an investigation, and if the FIB is allowed to do the fact-gathering, we have a very good chance of not only seating Thune, but we can force back vote-fraud operations AND not tick anyone off.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Your suggested remedy has too many scary ramifications. It is too similar to the statistical estimation that Gore pushed for in Florida, and the Dems pushed for in the Census count. To implement it would seem to open up a pandora's box of future cases by establishing precedent for introducing statistical sampling to vote tabulation. Would not it be better to order a new election, either in affected counties, or statewide(if required by equal protection issues)?

Either way, if Johnson ultimately does win, he should be forever known as Senator Red Earth.

[SD Badlands]

The Republicans in SD are NOT brain dead. They are going to need some outside forces to move the media in the state. Let's see FOX News do a feature story. That will start the ball in the right direction.

It has been ominously quiet in the Thune camp. Something will come out today.

[sweetliberty]

"Something will come out today."

I surely hope so. I firmly believe that fraud stole the election both in South Dakota and here in Arkansas. Fortunately neither race was a tie breaker, but it could have been. Voter fraud has to be stopped NOW!

[Coop]

Thanks for your update. It's much appreciated! SoDak, anything to add?

[bray]

Firewater for votes?? Bet there were a few drunk Indians election night! Ex-Senate Leader Dashole should want to make sure the election was clean and nobody was abusing his new election laws.

Pray for GW and the Truth

[Republic]

I don't think the RNC is hiding one iota. They are going to get it done, right. Patience, my friend. At the end of the day, if the fraud did not amt to enough to change the election outcome, people will still have been prosecuted.

This will help the election in 2004-and send a mighty message to trolls the DNC hires to do their dirty work. If this woman is prosecuted-you can bet there are many others out there in the wormy DNC woodword sweating about now.

[GoldenBear]

Thanks for the information. I have sent an email message and I will be contacting my elected representatives (all of which are Republicans) and demanding they also get involved.

[hchutch]

The FBI has been investigating since October.

Thune's silence is NOT a problem, IMO. Let the Senate seat Johnson "pending the outcome of the investigations." If they have enough data in this, then they can act, and use the FBI's eveidence as the basis for this.

I mean, who will people believe, the DNC or the FBI?

[Republic]

Pray for GW and the Truth

A very powerful, very good idea, my friend. You can bet I am praying for the truth to continue to pour across this nation. We are all so hungry for this. And our Father hears our crys. Awesome.

[Wphile]

Will these people testify about the shenningans? This needs to be exposed and it will take some honorable people to do it. That is very distressing about the lack of local press coverage.

[Dog Gone]

If I were running the RNC, I don't think I'd want to make an issue out of this until after the Louisiana run-off. There's no point in firing up the Rat base there.

Landrieu's support is soft.

[Cyber Liberty]

why did she go to all that trouble if no ballots were cast???

Because she got caught before the ballots were sent out?

[GAGOPSWEEPTOVICTORY]

It's funny how the media really hasn't picked up on this yet. It seems like it would be a story that is very sexy. America loves a conspiracy theory and all, especially one that has some teeth to it.

Interestingly, there finally seems to be some movement in the "right wing" press. For the first time, I saw some letters to the editor in the New York Post about the stolen S.D. election. The last letter that was published made a great point. Where are all of these "investigative reporters" from days gone by? It seems like a Woodward and Bernstein-esque story should be written about this election. Or is the slant of the media so to the left that there is no journalist with enough courage to swallow his own agenda for the sake of getting the story.

I am kind of torn about what the Thune campaign should do. Republicans are better than Demonrats in that we adhere strictly to the rule of law when it comes to most matters. If the law says X, we generally do X. Unlike the Democrats, we don't whine and complain about changing the rules in the middle of the game.

I know that I would be dissapointed if Thune does not demand a recount. He owes it to the citizens of South Dakota to allow the legal process to follow its natural course. As for the fraud investigation, I am conflicted about how, if in any way, you can change the outcome of the election if the allegations are proven because we vote by secret ballot.

At minimum, I hope to see the suspects apprehended and thrown in jail. If their actions can be imputed to the Democratic party and the Johnson campaign, I would hope that the Senate would impeach Johnson and allow a new election to take place.

Unfortunately, if Johnson leads after a recount and nothing is concrete to change the outcome of the election come January, you have to let him take his seat. I don't know how you can undo the election without losing the public relations perception battle that the Republicans are taking care of their own and are being racist against Native Americans. He should be tried and impeached with whatever due process is afforded him under the Senate Rules before a new election is held.

[SD Badlands]

The people I talked to gave me a formal statement (which I forwarded to the Thune legal team)and told me that would be willing to sign affidavits.

[Wphile]

That's great news. Let's hope there are many more out there. From some of the accounts I have read, on FR, it - the fraud - was particularly egregious and should not be allowed to stand.