Here’s one of those stories where previous actions have returned to come back and bite someone in the tail. This week in legislative testimony on elections, the Deputy Secretary of State testified in a legislative committee that their team of election experts do not know anything about election technology:
Hansen also wants the security procedures for ballot tabulators better proscribed in rule and wanted to know more about KNOWiNK, a St. Louis, Missouri, company that bought BPro. The secretary of state contracts with the formerly South Dakota-based company for some voter-registration and elections technology.
(Deputy Secretary of State) Deadrick indicated he didn’t know much about the company and acknowledged that the secretary of state’s staff lacks expertise in election technology.
“The fact that we don’t even know who these people are just concerns me a little bit,” Hansen said about KNOWiNK. He added, “Even the head of our elections doesn’t fully understand how this stuff works.”
I hate to bring it up, but I have to ask (rhetorically), “Why do they not have anyone with any knowledge or expertise in elections technology?”
Maybe because THEY FIRED THE PEOPLE WITH EXPERTISE in the infamous “Christmas Blizzard massacre” at the Secretary of State’s office, where as part of the spree, two of the elections staff were fired within two weeks of Monae Johnson taking office. Eileen Jensen who Johnson brought in as her ‘new’ Director of Elections quit less than a month at the job.
We didn’t miss that Monae was back looking for an elections coordinator as recently as June, noting the candidate would assist with Information Technology projects. I have the suspicion that they didn’t get it.
It goes without saying that if part of your focus is going to be on election technology and the machines that run elections, you probably don’t want to FIRE most of the people who have at least a passing knowledge of very specific equipment.
Because any embarrassment to the Secretary of State that arises from this incident seems to be pretty self inflicted.
Ran into Shantel Krebs the other day and told her that I miss the days when she was the Secretary of State. Hell, even though he had his faults, Jason Gant didn’t run his shop with the reckless abandon of our current Secretary. 2026, the year the aluminum hat goes back west.
Deadrick was Krebs’ deputy. He just should have sent his elections supervisor up to discuss it because she knows the system.
Shantel was kinda pretty. But so is Monae.
Hard to believe we have had 4 different SOS in 4 election cycles.
Incredible eyes wide shut philosophy.
Thanks to AJ, you are now in the minority.
You know the Kennedy classified documents are in the hands of patriots, now, right?
You’re like Austin Powers staying up all night catching up by watching television.
“Wait, you mean .. Donald Trump was PRESIDENT?”
First it was packet captures. That got debunked. So you moved on to a new conspiracy.
Then it was a convicted felon’s movie about mules. Then, that got debunked. You didnt miss a beat. Moved right on to:
RFK papers.
You’re a piece of lying garbage, John, along with clearly being mentally ill.
Trumpers hated the system because they never really understood it. They demanded to be in charge and now that they are we have a complete disaster. This is what happens when you elect the ignorant who were following blind stupidity. Who did they think was stealing elections when for the past 50 years every part of our government has been run by republicans?
You seriously can’t be thinking that the Q-Anon and Stolen Election crowd think do you?
81 Million votes!!!…
You mean the vast majority of the country?
What proof? The votes were counted and Trump lost. You have no proof, nada, zilch. Not even Trump appointed judges entertain whatever crackpot theory of the week you deniers espouse.
Coming from the lunatic from New mexico?
Lunatic from New Mexico? Who is that?
He is one of the few absolute lunatics who have been banned from this site.
Do you mean grudznick’s close personal friend, Lar?
More rent free. Still wasn’t the person to make the post. At this point, their mental illness is showing.
Yep, Lar’s mental illness is showing.
Lars is mentally ill but he isn’t in this thread. You are and you have joined him. Rent free.
What is a Lar?
Our system’s original functionality is amazing. You have to have a keen wit to understand how so few words could provide so much peace and justice. No other platforms have come even close to the US Constitution.
Since its founding, our system became laden with bureaucrats who have charged themselves with creating “rules” that our founders intentionally left to the instincts and characters of juries. You can’t codify rules for every circumstance, so rely on freedom and juries of peers when corrections are needed.
Maybe we don’t need to go forward with our legal system.
It’s a solid argument to make that we should be going back.
Fascism comes through the bureaucracy’s partnership with global corporations (ES&S comes to mind, formerly a Venezuelan asset in terms of the lineage of its intellectual property).
Great Britain’s feudal model is terrible for freedom and happiness, yet global banks are setting them up remotely by buying-off networks of deformed and culturally maimed descendants as per the MO of the OSS.
Britain’s system should once again be sent packing as it tries to retroactively superimpose itself onto the US political system.
Fascism comes when wannabe dictators try to throw out fair elections and empower themselves.
I’ve always loved getting deep into chat sections. You see the most vile and degrading offences to logic imaginable. You really have to do some mental gymnastics to figure out the implied premises.
Take this gem, for instance.
The implied premise is that 1) Trump is a wannabe dictator, even thought he never sent the National Guard into Portland, and didn’t call for violence to overthrow Congress in 2021 (he could have, and it would have been a real route, and the UN would have eventually come in and lost, but billions globally would have died from the disruption).
Another implied premise is that Trump needed to be President to empower himself when in fact selling out to globalism is the main method for empowerment these days.
Dude was a billionaire. He was set. King-pin in the NWO.
Instead, President Trump George Washington’d their a&&es.
I’ll tell you what you can do with your “king”.
USA! USA!
trump is not a monarch. he is a one-man vast oligarchy. the gop is now the grand oligarchy posse.
There is Amazon Prime and I would not be surprised if there was Q-Anon Prime. Our current officer holder of the South Dakota Sec of State Monae Johnson (Q-Anon Prime) has turned that office into a dumpster fire. Do we have the ability to have a re-call election? What options to South Dakotans have?
The Electoral College would work better if it was 1 Vote Per 1 District. Of 435 Districts, many of which are controlled by the Republican Party, it would not matter if the Democrats got the popular vote thanks to 6 States. The Republican Candidate would win thanks to winning a large majority of Electoral Districts. Look at California, of the 54 Districts, only about 7 of them hold Democrat majorities, while the other 47 hold republican majorities. In 1992, George Bush took the popular vote in 36 districts, Ross Perot took the popular vote in 11 districts, while Bill Clinton only grabbed the popular vote in 7 districts. But because the State of California was one of 48 States of which adopted the Winner Take All of the Electoral College based on who grabbed the popular vote of the State itself, Bill Clinton got ALL 54 Districts. Only Maine and Nebraska apportion their Districts based on direct apportionment .
For the Electoral College of Delegates to work as intended, all 50 States must abolish the Winner Take All of the Delegates based on their States popular vote. But I hate to say it,both the democrat and republican parties take advantage of this manipulated version of the electoral college, which has been in place since the year 1836.
the very first laws on presidential election had the us house electing the us president. that’s one vote per district. then there was a fight about letting the people vote BUT that opens the door to high population areas constantly outvoting the rural states where turnout and voting were much more of a hardship. the electoral college came from an effort to establish an electing body that would honor the actual population distribution but also honor each state’s choices in the final count. if you want one vote per district but don’t want the house members voting, you have to decide how to select your electors for this task, and whether the difference of doing it this way in the high population areas (meaning no “winner take all”) is worth it in how the election outcome might be different.
Congress has nothing to do with the Electors, they only are tasked with counting the ballots. The States and their respective people nominate and elect the Electors within the state, the Electors then hold meetings, and work to nominate and prop up candidates, the voters go to the polls to vote for which candidate they wish per district, while the Electors cast an official ballot as per their District. Just get rid of the Winner Take All of the Electors, so the legislatures will apportion them based on how the voters voted per district. There are more red districts than there are blue districts. The popular vote should not choose the president.
i’m all for eliminating winner-take-all. we have that because leaders of both parties don’t want bitter picayune fights in the primary and general elections, they want the fastest clearest outcome. i think there’s nothing wrong with bitter picayune fights district by district when the state and national stakes are high. the parties force this kind of corruption on us. we shouldn’t even have parties, but as long as one side of a question organizes into a party, we will always need the second party that opposes them. more than two parties is a different kind of mental weakness and corruption.
the democrats are a clear functional party, and while trump is doing his thing, the gop will never be that responsible response party to counter the dems. the current tea-party-backed jihad in the house feels good but nothing will come of any of it.
Very interesting take! I will noodle on this one for awhile ..
To answer your rhetorical question: it’s because no one with any expertise likely doesn’t want to move to Pierre. Government operations should be where you might be able to hire some talented, competent individuals – or at least as talented and competent government can get.
Monae Johnson has been a huge disappointment to many or most of us who supported her campaign. I do think she’s conservative, but it would sure be nice if she was competent and had managerial skills. She did nothing during this past legislative session and has surrounded herself with liberals while making excuses for her lack of leadership. I’ll be looking to replace her with a competent conservative at the next election, but she has really set us back and made conservatives look bad.
Surrounded herself with liberals? You guys really can’t take accountability without blaming every problem in SD on liberals even though they literally control nothing. Own it you cowards.
If their knight in shining armor Trump can’t take any accountability, what makes you believe that his followers will?
What in the world does political affiliation have to do with being head of the State SoS office? It should be no different than our county offices that are non-partisan. It is a managerial position. It does not need to be political.
it’s a statewide office, for which parties put forth their candidates. the general election voter gets these two choices, plus whoever else can get their petitions in to run. your county department heads get elected too, they only seem appointed or hired, because they often run unopposed in the general, or general and primary both.
Johnson’s performance should be judged by 1) the severity and difficulty of the problem (this is a 10/10) and 2) based on the progress she can make given the resources she has aligned with her (there are a LOT of people who do not want election integrity, sadly, shockingly).
The war on this is basically over .. we’re skirmishing to move the final border a few miles this way or a few miles that way.
Election integrity deniers have lost.
If this doesn’t get fixed, it won’t be Monet’s fault. She has nothing to lose. I hope she starts slugging soon.
WE LITERALLY HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE since we can’t audit our elections.
If we can audit our elections and we find serious problems, Johnson deserves a MEDAL!
Thanks DREW for this mess you gave us.
There wasn’t a problem until you created one. After Monae we need to fire Drew Dennert
How did Drew Dennert contribute to this mess at the SoS and under the helm of Monae?
Drew gave the nomination speech.
Drew had several minions behind the scenes working for him.
Drew was butt hurt bc he couldn’t handle an ass chewing by Barnett at the Capitol.
There is a reason he left Pierre and went to the county. He could join the good old boy’s network.
If given the opportunity, Barnett will bury him.
Kea Warne was the expert in the Secretary of State’s office the past several years. She should have run for the post as it was she who did the job.
Not defending Monae but most of the election staff that Monae brought in was staff that worked 4 years under Krebs and quit under Barnett. There was a huge walk out among election staff with Barnett. I know most people (legislators included) have no idea but there was a huge rift of disfunction that ultimately was a big part of why Johnson ran.
..annnnnnd here comes the political hack hoard.
Be part of the solution!
You’ll need to be able to count.
By ones.
Solution for what? Your mental illness that is full of conspiracy theories that you believe to be true?
Great.
Another anonymous coward.
Should I feel small now?
Do you do this kind of thing to your SO?
Address the issues or go home, boy.
What issues? You haven’t provided proof of anything. Even Trump appointed judges laughed at your kind. Get help, John. You’ve lost your mind.
This issue is completely exposed.
Sufficient technology expertise did not exist in the SOS before Johnson’s election.
It is not wise for a person’s reputation, because a critical mass of people now understand the truth of this issue, to claim that South Dakota is a gold standard for elections.
Hand count the ballots.
Anyone working on this problem should be working in earnest.
Beware the saboteurs!
Take a breath. Swallow hard.
You can do this, Monet.
John Dale, Monet? What does Claude Monet the famous French painter have to do with this post and the train wreck at the Secretary of States office? You are not an election judge in Spearfish or in Lawrence County are you?
Great.
Spelling smack.
You’ll never win a debate with that cheap shot tactic.
Sincerely,
John Dael
My apologies to Monae Johnson for misspelling her name in the midst of a conversation about how we need to hand count our ballots .. where counting, not spelling, will be a core skill.
Beware trusting anyone who makes an argument in the format:
“You misspelled a word, therefore South Dakota’s elections do not need integrity.”
Monae Johnson was, and does remain, an abjectly unqualified idiot. She and the folks who supported her (Qanoners, rubes, apathetic knee-jerk voters, delusional hacks, partisan bootlickerS, etc) are a skid mark on the reputation of the state.
That is the best description of John Dale and trumpers that I have ever heard.
I completely agree and spot on anons 6:57pm & 7:36pm
I think that if people really want to understand me they should not listen to cowardly Internet anons.
Consult this video, rather. It is really a window into my soul:
Does anyone else think Jon Hansen should just be anointed king? He seems to know how Noem should run her office as well as Johnson, the entire PUC and Jackley.
The guy would do himself some good to stay in his lane and focus more on what he could have done to win his race for speaker.
Hansen has mastered talking politics. Now he needs to learn how to do politics.
Who was the Dem that ran for SoS last election? Would be far better than the current office holder. This one party system is really costing us as a state.
Tom Cool. A paper bag is more qualified than Johnson.
I believe it was Tom Cool. He would’ve been TERRIBLE!!!
Monae. A nice smile and a completely blank stare.
“We don’t have any election experts here at election central.”
WOW.
Can you read, bro?
It was a statement about technology.
Most South Dakotans have no idea how computers work.
If they did, they would write more letters.
If you had half a clue you’d write more coherent sentences John.
I’d suggest you just stick to internet radio, but to be honest that doesn’t do you any favors either.
It’s bad that Hansen is making the same populist appeal for attention that got Monae the SDGOP nomination. He’s hoping that the same useful idiots Monae recruited to serve as precinct committee men and women will get him the nomination for AG.