Voting Fraud In South Dakota
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© 2002 Wall Street Journal
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
October 16, 2002 — Today the Senate will approve and send to President Bush a landmark bill that will upgrade voting machines and begin to curb the voter fraud that is creeping into too many close elections. It can't come soon enough. Last week, a massive vote-fraud scandal broke out in a U.S. Senate race in Tom Daschle's home state of South Dakota that could determine control of that body.
The FBI and state authorities are investigating hundreds of possible cases of voter registration and absentee ballot fraud. Attorney General Mark Barnett, a Republican, says the probe centers on or near Indian reservations. "All of those counties are being flooded with new voters," says Adele Enright, the Democratic auditor of Dewey County. "We just got a huge envelope of 350 absentee ballot applications postmarked from the Sioux Falls office of the Democratic Party."
Steve Aberle, the Dewey County state's attorney, says many of the applications are in the same handwriting. At least one voter, Richard Maxon, says his signature was forged. Mr. Aberle, a Democrat with relatives in the Cheyenne River tribe, says many Native Americans have wanted little to do with "the white man's government." But this year many tribal elections have been scheduled for November 5, [2002] the same day as the critical election for Democrat Tim Johnson's Senate seat. A Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee memo last month noted that the "party has been working closely with the Native population to register voters and Senator Johnson has set up campaign offices on every reservation."
More and more counties are uncovering fraud. Rapid City officials are investigating two brothers who may have forged registrations. Denise Red Horse of Ziebach County died September 3 in a car crash. But both Ziebach and Dewey counties found separate absentee-ballot applications from her dated September 21 in bundles of applications mailed from Democratic headquarters. Maka Duta, who worked for the Democratic Party collecting registrations in Ziebach, bought a county history book that contains many local names. Some are turning up in the pile of new registrations. At least nine absentee ballot requests have been returned by the post office. Mable Romero says she received a registration card for her three-year-old granddaughter, Ashley. Some voters claim to have been offered cash to register to vote. In both Dewey and Ziebach counties, the number of registered voters easily exceeds the number of residents over 18 counted by the 2000 census.
Renee Dross, an election clerk for Shannon County, says her office has received some 1,100 new voter registrations in a county with only 10,000 people. "Many were clearly signed by the same person," she says. Some registrants actually live in neighboring Nebraska. As in most states, South Dakotans are on an "honor system" and don't show photo ID to register or vote. Only the unprecedented flood of applications raised any suspicions.
State Democrats told the Christian Science Monitor they expect 10,000 new votes from the Indian reservations this year. In 1996, Senator Johnson won by only 8,600 votes. Russell LaFountain, the director of Native Vote 2008, says his organizers are encouraging "strong absentee balloting." Pine Ridge Reservation residents told me that 11 workers are being paid $14 an hour to contact voters. The statewide Indian voter project is run by Brian Drapeaux and Rich Gordon, two former staffers for Senator Daschle. Democratic officials say they've fired Ms. Duta and claim they were the first to bring the fraud to light. Ms. Enright, the Dewey County auditor, says that claim isn't true and is "pure spin."
Voter fraud isn't unknown on reservations. Democrats have often given out free tickets to Election Day picnics for voters on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where 63% of people live below the poverty level. In 1998, that prompted U.S. Attorney Karen Schreier, a Democrat, and Attorney General Barnett, a Republican, to write an unusual joint letter to county auditors noting that "simply offering to provide" food or gifts "in exchange for showing up to vote is clearly against the law." Amazingly, Kate Looby, the Democratic candidate for secretary of state this year, has criticized laws barring the holding of picnics for those who vote. She also wants to drop restrictions on absentee voting.
Making voting easy is desirable, but only if legitimate voters don't have their civil right cancelled out by those who shouldn't vote. In 1980, only about 5% of voters nationwide cast absentee or early ballots. Now nearly 20% do. "Absentee voting is the preferred choice of those who commit voter fraud," says Larry Sabato, a professor at the University of Virginia. He suggests media outlets set up "campaign corruption hotlines" and begin taking voter fraud seriously. The Miami Herald won a Pulitzer Prize in 1998 after its stories on how 56 absentee-ballot "vote brokers" forged ballots in a Miami election. The sitting mayor was removed from office.
In Texas, Democrat state Rep. Debra Danburg, who chairs the state House elections panel, has tried without success to reform absentee-ballot laws that are so loose she says they make "elderly voters a target group for fraud." Eric Mountain of the Dallas County district attorney's office says some campaigns have paid vote brokers $10 to $15 a ballot. Many seniors are visited at home and persuaded to have someone mark an absentee ballot for them. Others have absentee ballots stolen from their mailboxes.
The law Congress is passing addresses some of the problems the federal government created with the 1994 Motor Voter Law. Let's hope the latest scandal in South Dakota — uncovered only due to incredibly sloppy cheating — prompts states to examine their own absentee-ballot laws so they will stop being treated as an engraved invitation to fraud.
© 2002 CNN
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Saturday, November 2, 2002, Pierre, South Dakota (CNN) — A South Dakota election worker will be arrested on charges of forging absentee ballot applications, the state's attorney general announced Friday.
Many voters will continue with older voting technology, while newer methods are being tested around the country. CNN's Kate Snow reports.
Becky Red Earth-Villeda, also known as Maka Duta, is expected to be charged on multiple counts of forgery in Minnehaha County, where Sioux Falls is located, according to a statement from Attorney General Mark Barnett.
"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."
A local Sioux Falls newspaper, the Argus Leader, reported that the woman apparently tried to burn the original applications, but then decided to retrieve them, according to Barnett.
The woman told the attorney general she copied the applicants' names from the original documents because they had been filled out wrong, then she apparently tried to replicate the voter's signature on the corrected form, the newspaper reported.
County auditors alerted the state's Division of Criminal Investigation about allegations of bogus ballot applications, according to Barnett's office. At least 30 DCI agents are working on the case and have interviewed over 400 people in 25 South Dakota counties.
DCI agents also conducted a lengthy interview with Maka Duta Tuesday.
The information obtained is still being processed.
"Voters should proceed as normal and go to the polls on the 5th," said Barnett.
It is not clear how many absentee ballot applications are believed to have been forged, but Barnett told the Argus Leader between 80 and 100 are suspected in one county alone.
| EJF Home | Where To Find Help | Join the EJF | Comments? | Get EJF newsletter |
| Vote Fraud and Election Issues Book | Table of Contents | Site Map | Index |
| Chapter 5 — Lies, Damn Lies, and Mail In Elections |
| Next — Oregon's Vote-By-Mail Fails To Fulfill Its Promise by Melody Rose |
| Back — Voter Fraud Epidemic by Joseph Farah |