Sounds like the Board of Elections meeting today was quite the runaway train, with both the hand-counting crackpots, AND the Board of Elections throwing the Secretary of State to the wolves:
“Thank you for making things really clear for America today,” Weible told the board, with Johnson sitting directly across from him. “Today you showed us exactly why we must take back our elections, to do hand counts, and to get rid of the machines.”
and..
(Minnehaha County Auditor) Anderson also pointed out that testing ballots supplied by ES&S weren’t sufficient, so she used a spreadsheet designed by Weible, and that testing didn’t pick up marks made with light-blue ink.
Johnson also came under fire from Jessica Pollema of Tea, who had run for Lincoln County auditor in 2022 and lost. “Monae, we supported you,” Pollema said. “We campaigned for you. We donated money to you. We took you in our homes. We prayed over you, put up signs for you, and we put our necks on the lines for you.”
and..
Johnson tried to speak over Pollard about legislation that Johnson had brought and they opposed. Pollema accused Johnson of inviting “a far left Democrat” to help lead a post-election audit workgroup, and Johnson asked the board for a motion to adjourn the meeting. None of the board members responded.
and..
“Monae, you also promised transparency, but everything you have done has been less than transparent,” Pollema said. That prompted Johnson to again call for a board member to make a motion to adjourn — but again, no one responded.
Takeaways? Not sure that the Secretary of State ran the meeting as much as had the meeting run her over, as Rick Weible – who we last heard from telling us his life is at risk because of what he knows – wants to get rid of ballot counting machines.
The Board of Elections sat on their hands, and let Secretary Johnson twist in the wind in the face of her former supporters now running her over, and they sat mute as the cock crowed twice.. as twice the Board of Elections ignored the Secretary of State’s plea to stop the bleeding.
And to cap it all off, the Minnehaha County Auditor Leah Anderson told everyone that she’s using outside software on the Minnehaha County’s computers that Rick Weible provides her. Because she thought that sounded like a good idea?
Did I miss anything?
if i was going to cheat and totally screw up a solid well-run election, i’d loudly undermine public trust in the system, and label all of my slow-walking deconstruction of the process as necessary to restoring honor and trust. which is what is happening. let’s find the choke point where we stop all this foolery in its tracks, and double the guard please.
As has been mentioned on this site recently, candidate quality matters. There will be a 5th Secretary of State in as many elections in 2026.
It’s a drastically understaffed and underfunded office.
This is an insightful comment in the midst of a very difficult situation.
Weible already is measuring the curtains for the SOS office. He knows he’s getting crushed next week. He’s planning his run for SOS.
He would lose easily. He’s a joke. At the convention everyone freaks out about Rhoden won and Jackley won, Nelson, Greenfield, Haeder and Sattgast. Yes a broad spectrum but good leaders across the board. Monae was the outlier not the rule.
I’m more concerned about Leah Anderson running in a primary. She already won in the largest county in SD in a primary. People need to think these things through.
Drew Dennert, are you happy now?
Your hand-picked, groomed, and guided test pilot candidate is doing great!
Wait, or is this part of the plan? Chaos and turmoil, and you and your merry band of Kool-Aid consumers come swooping in to call everyone RINOs, make demands, and throw a fit and offering “solutions” to the problem you created.
Please, plan to take over other constitutional offices through the SDGOP convention, which you’ve stuffed with your narrative-spouting robots – all working toward one goal: replace effective, efficient leaders with highly unqualified, ill-equipped minions to your grand scheme. I mean “taking South Dakota back…for the people”.
The will of the people? Or the will of Dennert and Co?
Poor Monae, if only she had a crystal ball back when Drew and his little yellow legal pad were writing and handing out her convention nomination speeches in that Watertown hotel room “caucus”.
We had a great SOS and a well-run, ethical, transparent, and efficient SOS office. All until Drew’s little man syndrome kicked in…
And who suffers? THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH DAKOTA!
Wake up to the strings that are being pulled, people.
The latest puppet in the Dennert Distraction of Destruction: Toby Doeden!
Keep listening to the child commissioner when he tells you how important you are, Toby.
Good job, Big Boy – that’s how he gets you to do whatever he wants, as he keeps his hands squeaky clean. Or does he only pass his messaging to you through Al Novstrup? I’m sure you’ll be important enough for direct orders someday. Keep at it and do what they say (and only what they say – or you’ll end up in the cage with Kyler). And don’t worry about those massive FEC violations; Daddy Drew will ensure Monae makes all of that go away – she owes him her job, after all.
Pathetic puppets. And be sure to vote for Toby’s “will of the people – lie as far as I am wide” list of endorsed candidates – if you want our entire state to end up looking like the current cataclysmic humiliation that is the SDSOS office.
But you’re “SAVING” our state, right?!
Wake up – or get ready to watch South Dakota burn. There are smolders kindling in the “grassroots”!
These extremists have really hurt Brown County and especially Aberdeen.
This post really strikes me as weaponized FUD.
The linked article in its entirety is one of the most entertaining things I have read this week.
Clearly Bob Mercer must have struggling to control his own laughter.
Rick Weibel was indignant that he was not informed of the meeting!
Clearly evidence of conspiracy, doesn’t the SOS know she is supposed to keep him apprised of all the meetings? “Stop the violation!” he was heard to say, when the mic was cut off.
Nicole Braithwaite started to cry, talking about the bodies of dead servicemen as Weible stepped forward to kneel beside her and put his right hand on her left shoulder.
Not mentioned was whether he closed his ever-present laptop to do that, or if he’d left it open for others to see what he’s got going on there.
I wish I’d been there. I can see why nobody on the Board of Elections wanted it to end, it was a circus.
Popcorn please.
The sos office could easily use 5 more election staff with all they put up with. It’s in a bad spot with so much turnover and instability and lack of institutional knowledge.
Gant
Krebs
Barnett
Johnson
All 1 term.
Terrible situation for the office. The reason Nelson succeeded was because he’d worked there before and understood the office dynamics from well over a decade of seeing these situations.
Chris Nelson? Isn’t he the one that started the whole thing by “fixing” and election system that was not broke with computer tabulators?
Imagine being so dense that you think that unhackable and secure tabulators are to blame for the SoS Offices issues.
He was notified
There is one guy in Minnehaha County that has laid out a perfect plan of restructuring, and reorganizing the State, and think he may be aan excellent choice for SOS in the future. He takes the time to study, and reseach our history, and understands the constitutional process
“candidate for prescinct (sic) 5-18,” I don’t know if you are Troy or Ioana, but if you think we are going to elect your fellow Precinct 5-18 resident Mike Zitterich the next SOS, you are NUTS.
Since Mike has been banned from this blog and Ioana is unopposed, you must be Troy. Your surname is easier to spell than the word Precinct. Go with it, dear.
You people are to hard on Mike, as a family friend, and someone who has known Mike and his family for years, he would be a brilliant choice for Secretary of State one day if he so chose to grab it. He knows the laws, he has a passion to enforce the election laws, and after talking to him, I believe he is very sincere, and trustworthy of operating the office itself. Does he want the job, I don’t know. I do know this, he and his family are upstanding people, have operated an awesome small business in Sioux Falls for more than 40 years, and I know are an honest bunch. I wish you people would leave him alone, and stop attacking the poor guy.
MAGA psychos then: trust us, place our candidate as SOS.
MAGA psychos now: our candidate turned out to be horrible, but still trust us to remove voting machines despite multiple studies proving greater accuracy than hand counts.
They get voted in, they break stuff, and then claim stuff being broken is why you need to vote them in. Lunatics, man. It is getting so, so old.
Thanks, Republicans
See? the day before the nominating session at convention, nearly half the delegates in attendance stood up to be counted, to go on record as refusing to support the Republican slate of candidates.
Had they been stripped of their credentials and escorted out of the building, Monae Johnson would not have had the votes to secure that nomination.
That collection of people had no business being at that convention.
It’s not a convention problem, it’s a statewide problem of blindly voting R for everything.
Leah Andsrson won a primary in the largest county in SD. This is not just a convention problem.
SD politics is so fun… Now that the crazies have taken over, everyone is wondering what happened??!!! Where did these folks come from?? Hard lesson to learn, you invite crazy in – you’re gonna get crazy results. Convenient at the time, but here we are.
Here’s a thought only give elected republican office holders a vote. Don’t the auditors and legislators know who they want to work with as SOS? Don’t the states attorneys know who is fit to represent the state as AG? Don’t the legislators know who would be the best most productive lieutenant governor? Why in the world to precinct people have voting right????
Visited with a number of realtors and more of these out of state election deniers and fringe extremists or moving to South Dakota every day to get their freedumb!
Ask the governor. She has created a huge problem for herself. She is a huge reason Barnett lost in 2022. She fans the flames on FNC and Newsmax and she doesn’t believe what she is saying. She can get away with it because she has lots of money and fame. But the turmoil she has helped stir up in SD is very difficult for many others she puts in harms way.
I could not disagree more. Party upheaval has nothing to do with Kristi, and has been happening across the country for several years now. Unfortunately, it’s just South Dakota’s turn.
The burr in the saddle blanket is that it is incumbent (by law) that auditors and secretaries allow a reasonable audit of the election, and have reasonable control of our voting system (people, resources, and equipment).
I would disagree with your disagreement. She has pandered to the extreme right, trying to fall into lockstep with Trump. She has never admitted fault, instead – she doubled down. Noem has added fuel to the fire, and instead of trying to put out fires – she throws gasoline on it – but it’s never her fault. All of her TV interviews about her book exposed who she is truly is.
Look at all the RINO commentators commenting on this blog. I makes me feel giddy. I am feeling positive that America is changing for the best, and attempting to remove all the long term, established politicians from Pierre, the Legislature, the County Commissions, and of course the U.S House of Representatives. Cleaning house is best for America. putting America First Patriots in all positions of power from the U.S Executive Office, All Federal and State Departments, and County Offices, America will be officially restored back to its original principles. Cutting the Federal Govt by more than 60%, to cutting the State Govt by 50%, and getting rid of all the fraud, waste, and abuse is a god-given dream come true. We are taking back the Courts, both Federal and State. No more Lee Schoebeck types.
👆 this person is correct you know ! 100%
What are you wiling to give up? The cuts you outline will eliminate Social Security, Medicare, farm subsidies, highway dollars, public schools, etc. You’ll have to pay the full cost of your water, sewer, power and other basic necessities that are heavily subsidized. Until you say what you’ll live without, you’re just living a fantasy.
Can you pass me whatever crack you’re on? What’s on the chopping block, farm subsidies? Goodbye small farms and rural towns. Defense spending? You’ve now just opened the door to Communist China being a world superpower. Social security? Congrats you’ve just alienated every boomer that demands cuts but balks when their precious SSN gets brought up.
Lee Schoenbeck is an America first patriot. We need more of his steady leadership, not less.
This thread more than likely originated in Brown County by a Doeden Dumpsterfire PAC endorsed Diver.
It’s not the politicians .. it’s the process used to select and run candidates, and generally the electorate doesn’t seem to think through what will work best long term (the 401k mind set that off shore outsourced our future proof jobs).
Leah Anderson won a primary in the largest county in SD. Who’s to say she isn’t stronger in a primary when she has more conservative counties to campaign in?
She needs to go
Politics has become a freak show as EVERYONE on both sides are wholly nuts, incompetent, and ugly human beings.
Downward spiral.
Pat you missed the whole thing. This is about holding politicians (Johnson) accountable to what they told you they would do.
You interact with people who are insane you will find out they expect you to be insane also.
I do not recall Monae ever running on a promise to do away with voting machines.
In fact I don’t remember her promising anything other than post-election audits. I know she wouldn’t commit to whether she personally believed the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, she would just murmur that it was in the past.
She allowed the election deniers to hear what they wanted to hear and believe what they wanted to believe.
She didn’t, she ran on audits which the legislature took control of and got done in 2023. She’s happy to claim the action but she was behind the ball on that one.
When someone is running for office, it’s very easy to say “I will do X if elected.” Then they win, and realize that there are laws they have to follow and in order to change something, they need to go through the legislature. Outside of executive orders from the Governor, it is almost impossible for an elected official to single handedly make statutory or administrative rule changes. And that is how it should be unless we want to live under a dictatorship. I am not a fan of Johnson as SOS. She shouldn’t have made those campaign promises. But this canvassing crew is equally idiotic for believing Johnson could simply walk into office, snap her fingers, and make the changes. I’ve been dealing with these wack jobs for quite some time now and one thing is abundantly clear, they all have a gross misinterpretation of the law and they don’t understand how to get things done politically. But if you ask them, they’re the smartest people in every room.
the only campaign promises she made were
(1) to hold post-election audits “to bring more transparency and trust to the machines used for tabulating our votes.” (Facebook, 10-21-2022)
(2) she promised transparent & searchable campaign finance and expenditure records,
(3) full proper auditor training, (Facebook, 10-19-2022) and
(4) outstanding customer service.
Those are the only promises I can find. She never promised to get rid of the machines or hand count every ballot.
Her fans heard what they wanted to hear.
Whatever you think of her, you can’t blame her because her fans are idiots. They were useful ones to be sure, but that’s not her fault
Well she’s toast either way.
She’ll never get another term. No one trusts her. Everyone needs to be paying attention in 2026. We can’t allow this band of idiots to still be swaying minds in the SOS and auditor primaries.
All I know is here in the Northeast, other than the situation in McPherson County, the candidates for the Disricts 1,3, & 23 have seen election integrity as a non-issue. The biggest disagreement about elections is what to do with the convention process going forward. There’s disagreement in that with candidates in District 1 & 3 and the Open Primary Amendment which voters will decide in November.
So who wins?
Hopefully the moderate common sense republicans. Not the hard right weirdos
McPherson needs to regain control of their county party. Letting this continue is making that county the laughingstock. Who even knew where McPherson was before the pipeline and election deniers took over?
I, for one, feel no empathy for SOS Johnson. She courted these wackos and now she gets to lay in that bed.
What do you mean, “court” them? She IS them. She and Tornow have shown that these people have ZERO interest in effective governance.
These people are so weird and unhinged it’s sad. I think they should focus on themselves and what they can control and perhaps educate themselves instead of reading conspiracy headlines from Epoch times and other off the wall garbage.
They may be too dense for education. To ingrained on their stupidity. People need to quit riding with them and let their train derail
Everything happens last in SD. The GOP has been falling apart all over the country and now it’s happening here. Remember what Lindsey Graham said?
A lot of people are making the crazy statement, “if Trump wins, it will be the end of democracy.”
The translation, I think, is:
“You can vote for who you want, but if you don’t vote for who we want, you won’t be able to vote anymore.”
Careful patriots – attacks are vectoring in hard.
the translation i think is “a disaffected political underclass, united by a shared rage against perceived powerlessness, has been laid at the feet of a grasping unworthy tyrant, fighting hard to shut down a system which won’t survive if it fails to hold him accountable.”
you guys are such useful tools. everything that is glorious and superior about our real USA, here and now, has been made invisible or meaningless in your eyes. you’d rather pretend trump is the new reagan and rerun that idol-worship, and you’d rather sit in the midst of one of the strongest economies the US has ever seen, and pretend it’s really the jimmy carter stagflation economy again, crying about the “hell” around us in the middle of your well-off comfort. it’s sickening, to paraphrase goldwater “my kids won’t live under trump, your kids will live in truth and freedom.” MAGA is the bell jar that will cover and snuff the greatness of this country in its delusion.
This is what you Republicans get for signing a pact with the Devil, I mean these “crackpot” Trumpsters… AND, now you guys are getting ready to nominate for a president a convicted felon. (WTF?)
Trump won WI, MI, PA. States Republicans never win. He might be the only republican who can won those states. The guy is a Rockstar.
In 2016, more than 200 counties flipped from supporting President Barack Obama in 2012 to backing Trump in the 2016 election. Iowa is home to 31 of the counties. But none compare to Howard County in Northern Iowa – it was the single largest pivot county in the country, flipping by 41 percentage points.
I find it very interesting in a state where anyone with an R behind their name is elected. We are worried about election security!
With Republicans holding enormous majorities at both the local, state and national levels( at least in SD).
My mind goes to what the HELL is going on! What is the problem?
It is not the Democrats or the Independent’s but Republicans themselves and you wonder why there is a constitutional amendment to have so called “jungle” primaries!
When it gets to this point EVERYONE needs to have a say!
The top two primary wouldn’t be terrible if it keeps some of these idiots out. Maybe it’s what we need after all. We definitely NEED to get that SOS election out of the convention! Or we’ll end up with weeble wobble as SOS. It can get worse people!!!!
Mr. Weible and his followers are promoting actions which are quite attractive to many (perhaps a majority) of South Dakotans. Their proposals for hand counting of election results holds a certain deconstructionist Romance for their followers. It is anti-Science, anti-Mathematics, and anti-History. It is not rational, but to these folks, that fact just reinforces their Romantic notions about our State and our Country.
No terry the science, math, and history is on the side of those who want a transparent election with paper ballots that are hand counted by their precinct election officials.
Yet, science, math, and history has proven ballot counting machines are far more accurate than hand counting. A SD county even caught a mistake last election cycle because they checked with the machines after hand counting. These accusations of fraud are nothing more than a sore loser’s weak attempt to hang on.
Monae never promised to do away with the machines and go to hand-counted paper ballots.
If somebody who thought he had influence with her told you she would do that, he was wrong.
No block head, hand counts aren’t more accurate. Dirty liars such as yourself never check for the truth.
https://cwlasvegas.com/news/beyond-the-podium/nye-county-ballot-hand-count-likely-wont-make-thursday-deadline-mark-kampf-southern-nevada-aclu-supreme-court-election-midterms-ballots
Share the math, science, and history you are referring to. Hint: we know you won’t because it doesn’t exist.
Nice bullshit copy paste answer that dodges all of the above posts with no facts.
Tripp County hand counting trial today. 24 ballots. Hand count wrong twice. Machine – correct. Come on people!
When will this insanity stop?
It will stop when enough people get off their butts and vote in the primary.
With the Republican party so dominant in this state, elections aren’t decided in November, they are decided in June.
The people who think being registered as non-affiliated makes them look virtuous are delusional.
They aren’t virtuous, they are complicit.
Some complain they aren’t allowed to vote, when in fact they have opted out of the process on their own, by not registering with a party.
On a ballot with very few items, image how this will go on election night after workers have spent 13 hours at the polls already with a jam packed ballot. PLUS then after hours of counting they finally reach results they can agree on, those precinct workers then need to drive from remote polling locations back to the courthouse to deliver results. Driving after 20-24 hours of work… this canvassing movement is going to kill someone
It is not a matter if computers can count faster or more accurate it is a matter about which system is the least corruptible. It is easier to corrupt one vote counting machine then the 5 to 10 voting centers with multiple election workers that are your neighbors and with poll watchers that you also know. People have the right to an election process that they trust.
Prove your claims. Bring up data. Do it you goddamn coward.
The canvASSers claim this meeting was full of ‘evidence’. Stories of how monae used to be your friend and now she isn’t, or personal war stories (while moving) aren’t election fraud evidence. The group asked the board to take action without considering the board can only clarify a rule. They weren’t seeking clarity. They were demanding action.
Real evidence is showing me that John Doe voted twice or dead Susie Q voted. They haven’t done that.
Also notice all talk of CVRs suddenly has disappeared. Now they’re focused on ballot images. The goal will always change with this group.