Correction: Finance Reports may be in at SOS. In a pile. Are we at the point to request Monae Johnson step down from being SOS?

Do I owe a correction? It’s entirely possible. Unfortunately, it begs the question of how badly Secretary of State Monae Johnson, the state’s record keeper continues to botch up the basics of her job.

Noting my post below “Three Liz May Political Action Committees, Kevin Jensen’s PAC, Manny Steele, others have not filed pre-primary reports, according to SOS Website,” I pointed out the fact that several committees and legislators are listed as not having filed pre-primary reports by the Secretary of State’s office, ending my post with “You can read the entire list of people who the SOS is telling us hasn’t filed reports at https://sdsos.gov.  (Assuming they got it right.)”  The bad part is from a conversation I had a short time ago, that my statement might have been an assumption, and there’s a possibility that it isn’t a foul on the PAC’s and candidates. It might actually be on the SOS not getting it right.

I was informed that a number of campaign finance reports that were submitted by mail, which is allowed, may actually be received and at the Secretary of State’s office.  My correspondent, revealed to me that when they had followed up on a missing campaign finance report a week after it had been submitted by mail that had actually been received by the SOS. But, they were informed that they were in a pile, and they would get to them when they could.  They’d get to them when they could?

I could see it as entirely possible that Manny Steele, Kathy Rice, and some of the others – even Robin Schiro – might have submitted a written campaign finance report, versus an electronic version. Definitely Manny Steele would. And to imagine that while we’re looking for open government, they’re sitting in a pile on someone’s desk in the SOS office?  Someone explain exactly why the SOS staff can’t stick them in a scanner and post them?  What is going on?

The reports have a specific deadline, and there is a presumption and every expectation that they will be available for public view promptly for public disclosure of candidate finances prior to the election.  We have it in law when they’re due, and there’s a guide that you can find on the Secretary of State’s website.

The whole reason behind the concept of a pre-primary report is to publicly provide an accounting to voters of where candidates are receiving their funding from. It’s not there “just because,” otherwise, we’d just have a year-end report.   The possibility that the Secretary of State may have a number of reports in “a pile” that will in all likelihood sit until after the primary just beggars the imagination. What’s the point?  Open government completely breaks down when the custodian of the records can’t do their job.

But it doesn’t end there.

The group behind the recreational marijuana measure turned in petitions to place that measure on the ballot. Yet a month past, we’re no closer to knowing if we will be actually voting on it in the fall or not.   On April 30, Justin McNeal filed petitions to run an an independent. Have we seen those yet? Nope.   We just had the Board of Elections and the people who backed Monae to run for Secretary of State both actively roll her under the bus at the last Board of Elections meeting.

The office has been a revolving door for employees hired, fired, and coming in, and getting out as quickly as possible.  Don’t even get me started about their not acting on campaign finance filings that clearly violate state law, requiring an outside party to go to the step of filing an affidavit. Do they have no function or accountability as to referring things such as this?

(*Update* – Missed the one where Monae referred to the Life Defense fund as a “scam”)

At what point does someone (such as GOAC) ask “what is going on?” Because it has ceased to be a source of eye-rolling and amusement. It’s just bad.  Yes, various people in that office perform those tasks. But Secretary of State Monae Johnson was hired by voters to do the job of managing the office, and granted the latitude to bring on managers to act in her stead in carrying the job out.  The buck stops with her. When are we as the public going to get – at a minimum – a basic level of competence?

If the day-to-day task of managing the office, and hiring people who can get the job done, and the challenges are too great..  I hate to ask, but are we at the point to request Monae Johnson step down from being the Secretary of State? Because going into her first test as the person in charge of elections, she isn’t doing so great.   I’m not sure who remains who supports and cheers on the job she’s doing.   Maybe it’s a sign of the chaotic times, but if there was a resolution at the Republican convention this week to give her an “atta girl” for the job she’s doing, she may not want to know the results.

Are we at the point to request Monae to step down?  I don’t know the answer to that question.

But if she intends on staying, she needs to turn things around pretty darned quickly.