Indian Vote Suppressors Frankenstein and Gant Can't Agree

Rapid City lawyer Sara Frankenstein and the SDGOP are vindictive bullies for using the courts to shake down Oglala Sioux Tribe members who dare fight for their voting rights. Secretary of State Jason Gant uses specious obfuscation to further suppress the Indian vote.

But Frankenstein undermines Gant's contention that he can't use HAVA funds to help tribal members vote with satellite voting stations:

Frankenstein said that in negotiations on her side, she persuaded the secretary of state to change what she termed “internal policies” and release South Dakota’s HAVA money for the satellite office in Shannon County, which overlaps much of Pine Ridge. He could do this, she said, because in May 2008, South Dakota had completed HAVA’s initial requirement to modernize elections with up-to-date voting machines and the like.

From then on, Frankenstein said, the state was free to spend its federal HAVA appropriation on additional ways to improve elections, including satellite offices. Brooks v. Gant testimony and court documents confirm this. In Judge Schreier’s opinion, she noted that Shannon County residents had “minimal” early-voting access until Brooks v. Gant was filed [Stephanie Woodard, "'They Caved': Tribe Claims Win in SD Voting-Rights Suit," Indian Country Today, 2013.08.13].

Internal policies—that's code for "Jason didn't want to."

Republicans Frankenstein and Gant are both enemies of Indian voting rights. But even Frankenstein can't run with Gant's resistance to using federal money to carry out federal law to help Indians vote.

Adventures in Online Campaign Finance: Lindsay Late, No Supplemental Filing Button

David Montgomery says Secretary of State Jason Gant's new campaign finance system still gives him fits. Yes, it's an improvement over the old paper system, but it's still a pain in the neck for users, especially for the candidates who count on this system to file their legally required data.

Roy Lindsay likely feels that way this fine election morning. The Democratic District 8 House candidate did not have a campaign finance report on file by the October 26 deadline. Secretary Jason Gant himself said that he had received no pre-general campaign finance report from the Lindsay campaign as of yesterday morning. Team Lindsay swore to me last week that they had filed it.

It's there now, dated yesterday, November 5. Lindsay has $8,687.81 on hand, mostly his own money, after spending a meager $1,792.19 so far. At least $250 of that will go to Secretary Gant as the penalty for not filing on time.

But it's hard to tell if the screw-up was really Lindsay's or the system's. Consider this cotemporaneous tale of Gant-tastic computer adventures:

I hear another person who runs a PAC (runs it? I think he is a PAC... but that's a whole nother blog post) was trying to file a supplemental report yesterday. PACs and other committees have 48 hours to file those reports from the time of the receipt of big chunks of cash; if they fail to meet that deadline, they face a Class 1 misdemeanor penalty, which can be a year in jail and a $2000 fine.

So PAC-man's clearly motivated to file that paper pronto. He logs into his account on the Secretary of State's website. He's looking for the button to file "Supplemental." Button, button, button... no button. I haven't filed reports on the new system, so I don't know if there's a supplemental report button or not. But PAC-man says there was one and that it disappeared from his account. He's got a time-sensitive document and the button that would have allowed him to file it has gone poof? That's a hair-raiser!

PAC-man called and got help: the Secretary of State's office advised simply printing a form and faxing it in, as apparently have other committees with last-minute contributions to report. There's just one more flaw in Secretary Gant's online jalopy: during the busiest time of the campaign, the system does not allow online filing of the most time-sensitive document required by the campaign finance system.

Nesselhuf Tops SOS Poll; Constitution Party Cracks 4%!

The latest Madville Times poll shows a strong standing for Demorat Ben Nesselhuf, at least among all you Web literati. I asked "Which candidate will get your vote for South Dakota Secretary of State?" Here's what 141 of you said:

Lori Stacey	6 (4%)
Jason Gant	36 (26%)
Ben Nesselhuf	99 (70%)

Votes: 141
Conducted 2010.09.20–22.

A last-minute push from the Constitution Party camp pushed Lori Stacey just over the 4% mark, an amazing showing for otherwise hapless purveyors of conspiracy theories, unsupportable libel lawsuit threats, and ineffective legal arguments. The latest from the Stacey bunker: this broadside branding South Dakota Right to Life as deceivers for endorsing Republican Jason Gant.

Stacey says nothing about Gant's demonstrable deceit concerning his no-show at last week's scheduled forum with Ben Nesselhuf on Thursday at Western Dakota Tech.

What might the numbers of the candidates in double digits tell us?

1. Nesselhuf voters find great comfort in reading the Madville Times. :-)
2. My eager readers prefer Nesselhuf's focus on issues specific to South Dakota, including his intelligent and outside-the-box attention to economic development, over Gant's GOP playbook campaign of fear-mongering over voter fraud that happens elsewhere but is hardly an issue in South Dakota.

More polls to come! Stay tuned!

Vote Now: Madville Times Polls Secretary of State Race

The candidates for South Dakota Secretary of State are in the news: let's poll! The latest Madville Times poll asks you, eager readers, whom you want running your statewide elections, supervising corporate filings, and coming up with cool Web apps for voter enlightenment. Your choices:

• Constitution Party candidate Lori Stacey (though note: if Stacey's supporters are anything like her, they'll cast their votes, then retract them and deny they ever voted)
• Republican candidate Jason Gant, who skipped a debate scheduled for last week Thursday and then, according to Mr. Dahle at Badlands Blue, tweeted what may rise to the level of scandalous misrepresentation about his absence.
• Democratic candidate Ben Nesselhuf, about whom I can't really say anything silly, because Nesselhuf hasn't done anything silly on the campaign trail.

Poll is open in the right sidebar until breakfast time Wednesday morning. Tell your friends, and vote now!

Gant Dodges Rapid City Debate with Nesselhuf

Kevin Woster mentioned Thursday morning that Democratic candidate for Secretary of State Ben Nesselhuf was carbo-loading (and protein-loading, and syrup-loading!) for his high-noon debate with GOP SoS candidate Jason Gant at Western Dakota Tech in Rapid City as part of the school's Constitution Day activities.

But then, much to Nesselhuf's and Woster's surprise, Gant was a no-show. Son of a gun, Gant, who I hear was in Rapid City Wednesday night for a fundraiser, rescheduled to appear at WDT with fellow GOPer and Lt. Gov. candidate Matt Michels. Hmmm... either Gant didn't get enough pancakes Thursday a.m., or he wanted to avoid another roughing-up like Nesselhuf dished him at the Corn Palace last month.

No big whoop for Nesselhuf: he made the most of his trip to Rapid, enjoying 50 full minutes to talk about the Constitution with an engaged and interested audience of fellow citizens.

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Bonus Campaign Issue: Maybe Gant was off catching dogs. Read Gant's blog, and you might think the biggest reasons to vote for him is some guy in New Mexico who registered his dog to vote. New Mexico.

Apparently we can count on Gant to stanch the tide of four-leggeds sneaking into the voting booths. But Jason, some animals are more equal than others.
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Update 2010.09.19 20:45 CDT: Badlands Blue posts a screenshot of Jason Gant's Twitter spin on the missed debate and a shot of Western Dakota Tech's flyer for its Constitution Day events which pretty clearly shows Nesselhuf and Gant scheduled for a "Candidates Town Hall" on Thursday, September 16.