South Dakota Dem Hit with Vote Fraud Indictment

Newsmax ^ | 11/22/02 | Limbacher

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

A Democratic Party activist who worked to register hundreds of new voters on several Indian reservations in South Dakota will be indicted on vote fraud charges, the state's attorney general announced late Thursday.

"South Dakota's Attorney General says fraud charges will be filed against a Flandreau woman," reported KELO-TV news Friday morning. "Becky Red Earth-Villeda is accused of wrongly registering Native American voters while she was employed by the Democratic Party. The party then fired her."

Ever since election night, when a 3,000 vote margin of victory for South Dakota Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Thune turned into a razor thin 500 vote defeat after the reservation vote was tallied, questions have swirled about possible Democratic Party voter fraud.

Inexplicably, Thune conceded the race last week to Democratic incumbent Sen. Tim Johnson without demanding a recount.

"Attorney General Mark Barnett says he doesn't see any evidence that the problem of voter registration fraud goes beyond Villeda," KELO-TV said "He also says there is no sign of any tampering at the ballot box."

Barnett launched the investigation in October, when allegations first surfaced against the Democratic activist.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Dems Paid $12,000 to South Dakota Vote Fraud Figure

[blackdog]

Me make heap prayers to great spirit. Me smokem prayer pipe to have great spirit cause Sqwaw Red Earth to sing like Giant Sparrow, Sparrow known for ratting out Custer to us you know! Me also pray that great DNC Beast not come rip out her still beating heart in time of moon.

[mr.pink]

"Attorney General Mark Barnett says he doesn't see any evidence that the problem of voter registration fraud goes beyond Villeda," KELO-TV said "He also says there is no sign of any tampering at the ballot box."

Dangle a twenty year sentence in a federal prison over her head to get her talking, and I'm sure AG Barnett would have to reconsider that statement.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Why isn't voter fraud treated the same as capital murder?

[FryingPan101]

Hmmmm.....but I thought Senator Daschle had already addressed this subject and beat us up for even thinking it a possibility. Huh?

"Consider another close race, South Dakota's Senate election in 2002. Again we have a 500-plus margin (out of only 330,000 votes cast). A problem for you? Very much so, because on this occasion your candidate lost. Yet now minority voting, disregarded in Florida, is announced to be the culprit. You believe Oglala Sioux voting in Shannon County was "fishy." That's about it: no evidence, no basis whatsoever for the claim, and an omission of the fact that South Dakota's Republican attorney general and Republican secretary of state found no grounds for any such suggestion of fraud. What your readers are offered instead is an outright slur on our Indian voting community, complete with snide stereotypical references to "smoke signals." Missing only was some mention of "firewater.""

[MHGinTN]

No evidence of vote fraud anywhere else in SD? Uh, Shannon County been taken out of SD lately?

[Temple Owl]

Why isn't voter fraud treated the same as capital murder?

Or at least shoplifting.

[cdefreese]

A Democrat being charged with voter fraud?!? I just don't believe it. It's that damn vast right wing conspiracy again.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Who's treating it?

Since when have the Leftists ever given a rats ass who has seen what they do? Why was Lautenberg elected?

[victim soul]

A Pox on them all.

The Democrats for fraud and The Republicans for cowardice.

I guess there just aren't enough Freepers in South Dakota.

[MHT]

She is the tip of the iceberg and the TRAGEDY of this situation is that she's the only one they have caught tightly enough to prosecute.

[prognostigaator]

The reconvening Senate should straighten this out...

The story of fraud [when a 3,000 vote lead turns into a 500 vote loss], and the conviction of the squaw , Thune may just become the next Senator.....

[AmishDude]

Look, if Thune calls for a recount, the fraudulent votes get recounted. If fraud is found, it has to be shown that, even if all the votes Thune got in (say Shannon county) are fraudulent, there were still enough to give him the seat.

This fraud was caught before the 2002 election, so best to let the prosecutions go apace.

A Pox on them all.

That is the most gutless thing to say. I guess a pox on the murderer and on the prosecutor who can't manage to convict him, huh? Maybe you ought to learn to make a moral distinction once in a while.

[Poohbah]

Why isn't voter fraud treated the same as capital murder?

I look at it this way: we should handle ballots as if they were nuclear weapons, in terms of everyone keeping an eye on them while they are moved from place to place.

One stray nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day.

One unscrupulous SOB getting elected to the office of President has access to 5,000 nuclear bombs.

[hchutch]

An excellent analogy. Armed guard and a Personnel Reliability Program.

[Poohbah]

Don't forget "No Lone Zones."

[TheLion]

This was the origional story from your Newsmax link:

With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story...


Friday, Oct. 18, 2002

Dems Paid $12,000 to South Dakota Vote Fraud Figure

The South Dakota Democratic Party reportedly paid the person at the center of a growing voter fraud investigation more than $12,000 in the last three months, according to the Rapid City (S.Dak.) Journal, which revealed that the figure is shown in Federal Election Commission (FEC) records from July, August and September.

The FEC records revealed that Becky Red Earth-Villeda got 18 paychecks totaling $12,867 allegedly for administrative costs or voter drives. One of the checks in the amount of $3,500 was racked up as travel expenses.

Sarah Feinberg, identified by the Journal as a Democratic Party spokeswoman, explained that contractors are paid by the number of voter registration cards and absentee ballots they collect.

State Attorney General Mark Barnett told the Journal he is not prepared to say there are widespread problems with voter registration in and around Indian reservations.

"It is too early to categorize it one way or another. My focus is on one person," Barnett said, referring to Red Earth-Villeda.

Barnett said the state Democratic Party has not been implicated in the suspicious documents and that party officials have cooperated with the investigation.

The newest development in an expanding voter fraud investigation is only the latest in the controversy over voter registration and absentee ballots in and around American Indian reservations in South Dakota, the Journal reported.

Sherrill Dryden, county auditor for Fall River County, which handles voter registration for adjacent Shannon County, told the Journal that one out of every 10 new voter registrations in that county is being probed.

The incidents come out of an effort to boost voter turnout among South Dakota Indians in the Nov. 5 election, crucial to Democrats in their effort to hold Senate Control by re-electing Democrat Sen. Tim Johnson now in a tight race with South Dakota Congressman John Thune.

The Journal explained that Shannon County constitutes almost half the area of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. According to Dryden, more than 1,000 new registrations have come into her office from the reservation this fall. Some were from new voters and others from people who have not voted for a while and needed their registration updated.

"We had different birthdays and different signatures. Some of the middle initials were wrong," Dryden said. "We just got suspicious when we see a birthday that's a day or two off or a year or two off. It just sent up a red flag."

The state and the FBI have been asked to investigate, she said.

And Shannon County is not the first South Dakota county to report such problems. In other areas of the state, officials say duplication, registering dead people and forging of signatures have been reported.

According to the Journal, about 17,000 new registrations have been reported since the June 4 primary, and the level of absentee voting has exceeded that of a presidential election year.

The state Democratic Party fired another contract employee after registration and absentee ballot irregularities surfaced in Dewey and Ziebach counties.

Auditors in Jackson and Corson counties also reported similar voter problems Thursday.

Jackson County Auditor Vickie Wilson told the Journal she turned over seven absentee ballot requests to local authorities this week. "I was fairly certain that someone other than the voter could have signed them," Wilson said. She said she also provided the FBI with a total of 20 absentee ballot requests for investigation.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Office is investigating the case.

Jackson County Sheriff Bruce Madsen told the Journal three people have told him that they did not sign the requests, and two others didn't remember signing them. Madsen said he only found one person so far who had confirmed signing a request.

He added that this is the first time in his 27 years in the sheriff's office that he has had to investigate suspicious voter signatures. "It sure is going to throw some doubt into the election," Madsen said.

Wilson said she had also received several incomplete registration cards in the past few months, but she did not consider them suspicious.

Corson County Auditor Dorothy Schuh told the Journal she had turned over a half dozen voter registrations and absentee ballot requests to authorities for investigation. The FBI and the South Dakota Attorney General's Office are looking into those requests. This is Schuh's first year as auditor, but she had been in the office for five years and hadn't experienced any suspicious voter documents prior to this year.

In a separate Indian voter program in Pennington County, two brothers are being investigated for forging signatures on voter registration documents. Pennington County Auditor Julie Pearson said authorities are looking into possible inaccuracies in 230 voter registration cards turned in there.

So far, four cards have been found with inaccuracies, Pennington County Sheriff Don Holloway said.

See also Fraud Clouds Senate Race in Daschle's South Dakota

[TheLion]

Also from the same link:

Fraud Clouds Senate Race in Daschle's South Dakota
Christine Hall, CNSNews.com

Friday, Oct. 18, 2002
Reports of voter registration fraud involving Democrats and Indian reservations are pouring out of South Dakota, the home state of Democrat Senate leader Tom Daschle.
Less than three weeks before the midterm election, the allegations complicate one of the closest Senate races in the country, one Republicans hope to win in order to regain control of the chamber.

A Zogby International poll of 500 likely voters conducted Oct. 9-11 found that 45 percent of voters favor GOP Rep. John Thune, with 43 percent favoring incumbent Democrat Sen. Tim Johnson. Ten percent remained undecided.

If It's OK for Dead Democrats to Vote in Chicago ...

The FBI and the state attorney general have launched investigations into incidents in which employees of the state Democratic Party allegedly tried to register dead or nonexistent people to vote absentee in the November election.

No ID!

Voters are allowed to vote absentee between Sept. 24 and Oct. 21. The state works largely on an honor system in which voters who go to the polls on Election Day aren't asked for identification.

At least six counties near Indian reservations are reportedly implicated in the investigation: Dewey, Pennington, Fall River, Charles Mix, Shannon and Ziebach.

In Ziebach County, according to news reports, someone allegedly sent in an absentee ballot application for Denise Red Horse, a woman who died in a Sept. 3 car accident. Her application was signed Sept. 21, more than two weeks after her death, and reportedly mailed with a bundle of other applications by the Democrat headquarters.

'Clearly Signed by the Same Person'

The Wall Street Journal reports a Shannon County election clerk received a high number of new voter registrations, many "clearly signed by the same person" and some hailing from Nebraska.

Bret Healy, the executive director of the South Dakota Democratic Party, has said he notified the U.S. attorney about the fraud and subsequently fired contractor Becky Red Earth-Villeda after she allegedly submitted invalid voter registrations.

Daschle Underlings Involved

According to the Journal report, two former Daschle staffers, Rich Gordon and Brian Drapeaux, head the Democrats' Indian voter project. But, Sarah Fineberg, communications director for the state Democratic Party, Thursday disputed that Gordon is affiliated with the Democratic Party. She added that only one person associated with the Democratic Party, independent contractor Becky Red Earth-Villeda, is under investigation.

Fineberg confirmed that Democrats have made "outreach" to potential Indian voters a priority in this year's election.

"Have we made a strong attempt to register Native Americans to vote and to do our best to get as many of these people as possible to participate in the Democratic process? Yes," said Fineberg. "That's an appropriate thing to do, because Native Americans, just like everyone else, deserve a seat at the table and deserve their voice to be heard, and [in] one of the most important elections to ever come to South Dakota."

According to Fineberg, the party has set up voter registration tables at state fairs and other gatherings as part of its efforts to boost Indian registration.

FBI special agent Paul McCabe said he could not comment on specifics of the agency's investigation, which is being conducted by the agency's Minneapolis office. The FBI became involved because Indian reservations come under federal jurisdiction.

Christopher Maynard, a Dakota State University political scientist, said he doubted that incidents of voter fraud are part of a comprehensive, intentional effort on the part of state Democrats.

"Much of the fraud that's been found so far has to do with money more so than trying to influence the election," said Maynard. "The problem comes in when many of these groups, such as the Democratic Party, give money based on how many people you can canvas, how many absentee ballots you can bring in."

He believes the Senate race will remain focused on issues such as Iraq, Medicare, prescription drugs and Social Security.

But the election could remain tainted by the accusations of fraud, says Maynard, if the attorney general is unable to unearth any evidence of the wrongdoing between now and the election, if the national media publicize the matter, or if Johnson wins by a slim margin.

If Johnson wins by a few hundred votes, "then you might have a situation where the Republicans contest it in the court system," he predicted.

Daschle's Pork Helps Democrat Incumbent

And it's Johnson who has an edge, Maynard believes, thanks to pork barrel politics.

"The reason this race is in a dead heat right now [is] because Daschle is in charge of the Senate, and that gives South Dakota a huge advantage as far as appropriations," he said.

But on Election Day, Maynard says, it's voter turnout that will determine the outcome, especially the senior vote.

"If it snows that day and it's cold and miserable and that brings down the elderly vote," he said, that could spell trouble for Johnson.


Copyright CNSNews.com

[TheLion]

Thanks for posting this article. I have linked this to FReepers Against Voter Fraud Freepers are invited to stop by and learn how we can help put a stop to voter fraud.