Following up on the story from earlier this week (no, not the CIA one), where Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson made the decision to disqualify the vast majority of votes in precinct 4-16, Bret Holien, Codington County GOP Chairman, and the VP/Corporate Counsel for DakotaPost mail forwarding reached out to me at South Dakota War College over Anderson’s actions.
Why? Because Minnehaha County Auditor Anderson’s actions appear to have directly interfered with the voting from a number of people who had every right to vote absentee.
I’m sure you are aware, but those ballots she tried to reject at one of the locations were all from our customers at DakotaPost mail forwarding business the Holien family bought over 10 years ago. You have written about it previously so I know how in tune with the issue you are, these people are mostly republicans who live abroad as diplomats, students, military, missionaries, or full time RVers that all have a constitutionally protected right to vote. They also generate millions of dollars for Minnehaha and South Dakota in insurance and vehicle taxes alone.
Another thing is that we know that most of all the mail forwarding businesses in South Dakota, and there are several, are about 85% GOP voters. So under the guise of election integrity (which we have secure ballot structure so their concerns are unwarranted) these absentee ballot protesting groups and Leah would try to eliminate not 132, but it will be thousands this fall, as they tend to vote mostly in presidential elections.
Bret Holien
Vice President / Corporate Counsel
DakotaPost
Disenfranchising legitimate absentee voters whose vote is protected under state & federal law is not what South Dakotans want. And these votes could have affected the outcome in at least one major county race, as there was a county commission race within the margin of votes allowed to be pulled:
And it appears to have gotten worse for Anderson, according to a story just posted by the Argus Leader, where they moved challenges forward despite the advice of the State’s Attorney, and the Secretary of State. And Anderson said she was aware it was going to happen, as the SOS rolls Leah Anderson under the bus wheels hard in a story titled Secretary of State’s Office: Challenge to Minnehaha County ballots fell outside state law:
Haggar, along with Chief Civil Deputy State’s Attorney Eric Bogue, said Friday that they presented to both precinct boards that the challenge was not permitted under state law.
Anderson told the canvassing board that she had been made aware of the pending challenge the night before the election, and that she wasn’t sure if the precinct got in contact with each individual voter to establish their identity.
and..
“We had advised a Minnehaha County official that per state law SDCL 12-18-10 on items that are challengeable, what was being challenged didn’t fall into those parameters,” Soulek stated. “This is a county level matter, but we are deeply concerned and care about the voting right of all eligible voters.“
What is going on, where the Minnehaha County Auditor is letting the election nuts loose on Minnehaha County?
I have a son in the Navy – as a South Dakota resident, if he chooses to vote absentee in South Dakota elections, that’s his right to do so while he’s defending our country. We don’t need election conspiracists interfering with the voting rights of our military, people out doing mission work, people temporarily residing overseas, or even people who use South Dakota as their home base for their RV Travel.
If we don’t have clear guidelines how to remove County Auditors gone wild, the Legislature needs to make those laws more clear. Because it looks like we’ve got a bad one out there.
What’s the point of mentioning that they’re GOP votes? Is he implying this would be less of an issue if Democrats were the owners of the majority of these mail boxes?
because it was a Republican primary?
It is completely the point. Because it’s GOP voters our state party might get off its ass and actually give half a crap about accountability.
Impeach her.
Or is it recall for county official? Seriously asking.
What a creep. Interfering with Americans’ right to vote. The County commission needs to adjust her salary to her skill set – $1
Whoda thunk that a conspiracy driven nut job would suck at her job?
Or become the thing she supposedly hates by denying people their right to vote.
Who needs biden and machines to steal an election?
Any auditor who intentionally steals someone’s right to vote should be investigated and if they violated those voters rights they should be removed from office.
This is outrageous. Between this and the story about the CIA interfering in the 2020 election she should be investigated for NOT doing the job she was hired to do. Listen to the podcast posted in the other article. I don’t think she was hired to review the 2020 election records for Minnehaha county, but that is what she wants to look into because there appear to be algorithm issues… This woman is only interested in finding issues where none exist. She admits there are no discrepancies in the recent election… When is she finding time to investigate this and listen to the podcasts on conspiracy theories that she refers to? Hopefully not during office hours… There has been absolutely no proof of any election interference because there wasn’t any in South Dakota. We have to prove who we are to vote either in person or absentee. End of story. Just stop it.
Again, another story of how the GOP allowed crazy in, when it was convenient for them – and now, the crazies are running the show… 2025 legislative session is GONNA BE LIT
I’m scared for what election legislation that crew will pass in 2025. I hope our state can withstand the lawsuits
The Hougard (sp) group and the whack-a-doodle brigade.
There is nothing worse than election officials undermining our elections in the biggest county in the state.
Thanks Republicans for supporting this nonsense because you are sore losers. You made crazy mainstream.
3-17-6. Grounds for removal of local officers from office.
Any officer of any local unit of government may be charged, tried, and removed from office for misconduct, malfeasance, nonfeasance, crimes in office, drunkenness, gross incompetency, corruption, theft, oppression, or gross partiality.
ARE YOU SURE you want to bring the (legion of) evidence into public court?
yes.
Lmao another election truther, when given the opportunity to prove their claim tries to hide from the light like a cockroach. Prove your crap, you’ve only been crying about it for nearly four years.
Yes, you utter coward. FOR ONCE, prove your claims
Psychosis
The mail forwarding enterprise’s participation in the voting process is dubious and problematic. Information systems analysis puts the number of these publicly unverifiable voters at enough to sway many important local South Dakota elections.
It’s a smoking gun.
Good honest folks who just want privacy who are driven to these services, which exacerbates the problem. They are buffalo-jumpers from the surveillance state.
I recommend coming clean now and making your information public through the voter registration system.
If our boys can storm Normandy, you can put your real address on a voter registration card.
Mr. Dale, grudznick had the opportunity to visit the Steerfish joint for the grub and and missed seeing you there again. I could almost feel the 5 Gs pounding my brain from the devices they have installed in your town.
the tin foil wrapping your lunchtime potato can be put to many uses.