South Dakota Fraud

U.S. District Judge Lawrence L. Piersol issued a temporary restraining order against the Republicans, concluding that "there was intimidation particularly targeted at Native American voters in Charles Mix County by persons who were acting on behalf of John Thune."

In a complaint filed late this afternoon, Daschle asked U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Piersol to keep 200 Republican monitors from engaging in a list of activities at polling places across South Dakota, including writing down license plate numbers and taking notes.

The Associated Press published: 10/22/2004

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Six Republican notary publics face a misdemeanor charge in connection with absentee ballot applications filled out on South Dakota college campuses, but there's no evidence of voter fraud, Attorney General Larry Long said Friday.

Tonight six people connected with the South Dakota republican party have resigned over questions surrounding absentee ballot applications. The state director of the Republican Victory Program, Larry Russell is one of them...

Many absentee ballot applications are what led to a half dozen resignations. The people involved in securing the forms may not have always made sure a commissioned notary witnessed the voters' signatures.

Jan Nicolay, a member of the party's executive board and a former state lawmaker, said Thursday she is upset with some of the tactics being used in this year's election. Her resignation comes in the wake of the recent resignations of six other people connected to the party. At issue are questions students on some college campuses have raised about whether absentee ballot applications were legally notarized. Because of the flap, Nicolay said some students have become disillusioned with the political process and that's not right. "It would be easier to sit back and say and do nothing but at the same time I couldn't do that," Nicolay told KELO-TV of Sioux Falls. "I just think it's a disservice to the young people that are probably for the first time getting involved or looking forward to getting involved." Nicolay said the party did the right thing by enforcing a zero-tolerance policy, but she said she still doesn't want to be involved anymore. "I'm bothered. We need to keep it clean. We need to protect this process. And people that are involved in it need to understand that. The candidates need to set the highest standard and say this is what we need to do and I guess I don't think it's been done." In a statement, the party said it had already acted appropriately to address the issues Nicolay raised.