Secretary of State’s Vote 605 app directing people to Krebs for Congress Campaign Facebook Page *updated*

Pat Powers

In the past, Secretary of State Shantel Krebs has criticized her predecessor for various things such as politics in office, and for computer related issues. So my ears perked up when I was told today that the Secretary of State’s 605 voter app has apparently been directing people to Krebs for Congress Campaign Facebook Page for several months now.

According to Secretary of State Shantel Krebs’ website, the intent of the Vote 605 mobile application is to help voters find valuable information about elections:

“Using this information-protected application, any registered South Dakota voter now has the ability to discover where they may vote, what is on their ballot, and any additional voter registration and election information pertaining to the user.

Read that here.

Unfortunately, (and we hope inadvertently) the Vote 605 App has fallen victim to the closeness of the Official functions of the Secretary of State’s office to her campaign efforts as she attempts to run for the US Congressional seat being vacated by Congresswoman Kristi Noem.

Because if you click on the app to go to what you think is Shantel Krebs’ Facebook page for the Secretary of State’s web site, you’re getting different information than what you might have expected. In fact, I filmed what I found when I clicked on it myself:

As was pointed out to me by a reader, the Vote 605 Voter Information App has apparently been sending people who click on the Facebook link not to a Facebook page for the Secretary of State, but to Shantel Krebs’ Federal Congressional Campaign Facebook page. (The twitter links to a more state related SOS Twitter page).

In fact, going looking for the actual Facebook page for Krebs in her role as the Secretary of State, there’s even a more curious discovery.  As in… there isn’t one.  Was there never one? Did it disappear?

This caused me a lot more sleuthing. What did I find?

There’s Krebs’ personal facebook page.  And there’s her Congressional facebook page which the 605 App links to as demonstrated. But if you search, there would not appear to be a public Facebook page for Krebs in her role as Secretary of State anymore for the 605 application to link to.

But, where did it go? If you look at the link for her Congressional page..  the link in the page for her Congressional Facebook page appears to have references to her being Secretary of State:

What I found was that this page – which had been used for and accepting the traffic & likes for Krebs’ role in the public sector office of Secretary of State – had been converted over to the purposes of the federal race. And as I found out after doing some retrospective digging, her Facebook page has been flowing all along and changing as she’s adopted various public personas during the years.

It appears that the page has gone from her time in the State Senate campaigning (watch the dates of the posts, all screen shot today)….

..to her Secretary of State 2014 campaign page..

…To the Official SOS Facebook page.

And sometime after this post, after the campaign page became her official SOS page, it was being used to promote the very app which was directing people to the now official facebook page..

Unfortunately, on March 13th of this year, the Krebs official SOS page was converted back over to campaign duty and over to her Congressional Campaign site…

…But the links in the 605 App were never changed.

During the prior conversion of Krebs’ campaign Facebook page into a website for a public official, at that time the linkage between the Facebook page and the official Secretary of State’s 605 App was established.  Unfortunately, when the Facebook page was reconverted to the political, it appears to have not been unlinked.

As was pointed out to me by a correspondent today, it begs the question “why was her campaign page converted to a public office page in the first place?”

As the SOS is finding, you can run into a problem when you’re co-mingling your campaign persona with that of being a public official. Because of the blurring, since at least since March 13th, the SOS’s official Vote 605 App’s Facebook link has been shuttling people to a page branded for the Secretary of State’s run for Congress.

Could it have been a political page all along? Sure. But if it was never intended to be a social media page for Krebs in her official role, and was only intended to be limited to her political activities, then why was it linked up to the State of South Dakota sponsored Vote 605 App in the first place?

Neither possible explanation comes off looking very good in this matter.

It’s probably telling how much people actually used the Facebook functionality for the Vote 605 App that it wasn’t discovered until now, nearly 4 months later.  And I suspect a lot is going to happen in short order to correct this as soon as I hit “publish” on this post, and there won’t be a reason to waste another breath on it.

But it might also represent a bump in the road for the Congressional Candidate whose campaign is almost solely based on her claims of being a reformer in the office of Secretary of State.

The phrase best used might be “physician, heal thyself.”

**UPDATE**

Since the Story broke, apparently Secretary Krebs has appeared on KELO AM Radio to offer a couple of comments.

An “oversight” that a “personal facebook page was linked?” Hmmm…

As noted above, the page that was linked was absolutely not her personal facebook page, but the political page she’s used ever since she’d established a facebook presence for the state legislature, and other offices. There never was an official SOS page. Just her political one that was modified for that use.

But, that’s her story, and apparently she’s sticking to it.

86 thoughts on “Secretary of State’s Vote 605 app directing people to Krebs for Congress Campaign Facebook Page *updated*”

  1. This is what happens when you spend more time running for Congress than serving in your current office. You get official and political confused.

    Disappointing.

  2. Wow, isn’t this illegal? She has used tax payers dollar to link to her campaign page, somebody call Angela Kennecke!

  3. South Dakota Codified Law 12-27-16.1. would require that she know list the State of South Dakota as a contributor to her campaign.

    12-27-16. Any political committee making a communication under this section shall include each communication as an expenditure on the campaign finance disclosure report.
    A violation of this section is a Class 2 misdemeanor. Any subsequent offense within a calendar year is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

  5. My golly fat baby jebusses. Why isn’t this phone app going to a real government web page and why is she tricking people to go to her campaign blog from a taxpayer funded phone thing that is meant to help voters?

    This is bad. It is very bad.

    1. I don’t believe it would be Attorney General Jackley because this is a federal violation it would be US District Attorney Randy Seiler.

      1. While she may have also broken some federal laws, I think the other commenters are right- she violated SD state law as well.

  9. South Dakota Codified Laws 12-27-20. Expenditure of public funds to influence election outcome prohibited. The state, an agency of the state, and the governing body of any county, municipality, or other political subdivision of the state may not expend or permit the expenditure of public funds for the purpose of influencing the nomination or election of any candidate…

    1. Under FEC regulations, a candidate’s federal campaign committee may not accept funds or assets transferred from a committee established by the same candidate for a nonfederal election campaign. 11 CFR 110.3(d).

      Would be real interesting to see what the Feds say about a public office assisting a congressional campaign.

  10. I don’t know how Secretary Krebs is going to explain this away, but it looks like she has violated election law. She has let us down.

    1. Don’t forget while you’re at her official State website to make a contribution to her campaign.

    2. That’s rather disturbing. It looks like a government site to download an app thing to send you to her congress blog. grudznick is saddened.

    1. I’ll bet by 6AM tomorrow it will be shut down. The explanation will most likely be similar to Hilary’s email/server excuses.

      1. Lost my bet. I loose nothing, Krebs on the other hand is quickly on her way to losing support. This is very sketchy.

  16. Noem female Hubble female Krebs female. Do you see a pattern? No like female candidates. Not members of the club.

    1. I suspect the dozens of women candidates whom I help every year, as well as those I’ve helped over the years would disagree.

      Because it’s not about gender.

  17. Krebs is spending too much time out of the office trying to run for the next office. If you can’t do the job we elected you to do than you shouldn’t be running for Congress. You’re just another dirty politician.

    1. I’ve heard complaints of her making fundraising calls during work hours. Krebs should take a long hard look at finishing the job she was elected to do.

  18. Mr. Barnett would never have a phone app pointed to his personal face booking pages.

    2. Did he ever use state property such as phones, computers for personal use. I guess you could nail many state officials for personal use of state property.

  19. Really surprised that the link is still wrong, it’s been hours since this was posted.

    1. It looks like it’s still wrong. Maybe they don’t care or don’t think it’s a violation?

  20. so her personal state, political Facebook page became her congressional page (did her followers know they “liked” her congress page?) and her personal page became her official Secretary of State page and the state owned 605 AP linked to her campaign page.

    What, what?

    1. No, her senate campaign became her SOS campaign. Which became her SOS official, which the app linked to. And that one became her Congressional race page.

  21. If she is found guilty will she have to resign or could she still run for Secretary of State?

  22. What a disgrace. A lot of delegates put our trust in you not to make these mistakes and now you give the Secretary of States office another blackeye.

  24. I’m not for either candidate, but I have to say there’s a whole lot of politicking going on here. Clearly a mistake by Krebs. Also clearly being shopped and promoted by team Dusty – going over the top even on this blog. But that’s how campaigns roll now days — everything over the top. Sad.

  25. Trying to blame Dusty for Krebs mistake…I don’t think that’s going to work.

  26. I believe that if there is the appearance of a violation of election law by the Secretary of State an investigation should take place by Jackley. We need to show that our elected officials are not above the law and that they be held accountable. If Krebs doesn’t think she done anything wrong she should welcome an investigation to prove her innocence.

  28. Conspiracy! I see 20 anti-Krebs comments came in rapid fire last night. (July 6) But your article is posted today? (July 7th)

    Calling Infowars and Lora Hubbel. This needs investigating.

    1. That’s because I updated the date when I updated the article, so it would display at the top.

  29. If Jackley does not investigate it’s going to look very bad for him and the whole crony capitalism problem in Pierre. He can’t give her a pass on this one.

  30. Hey, wasn’t there a Government Accountability Board that was just establishes to investigate complaints of misdeeds by our elected officials? Seems like this would be a good first case.

  31. Wow. The attacks here on Krebs, a mainstream Republican candidate, are pretty rough. What gives?

  32. I look at things on what she’s now telling KELO was her personal facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ShantelKrebsSD and have to wonder out loud how much Secretary of State staff time went into producing the videos and posting on it during Secretary of State Working hours?

    If it is a personal page, it doesn’t look like she treated it as a personal page. It looks like she treated it as her Secretary of State office page.

    1. You say that you “have to wonder” how much Sec of State staff time went into producing those videos?

      You gotta love those types of accusations.

  33. Here is Krebs personal FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/shantel.krebs.7 (which has posts going back to 2010)

    And here is the Political Page:
    https://www.facebook.com/ShantelKrebsSD/ (which Pat chronicled above)

    As anyone who has been in a political campaign can tell you the ShantelKrebsSD is definitely a political URL.

    As such, I am not sure why Krebs would be saying this was a personal site that was accidentally linked–when it was most certainly the political site that was linked. Hopefully, she was just confusing the two FB sites during this firestorm in an effort to get past the issue. Still, this is quite an oversight from the top SD elections official.

  34. “I don’t read blogs… maybe you should start, it’d help you know what some of your constituents are thinking. …only credible sources like kelo,com.”…that’s where you get your info, from the countless 10-sentence stories that lack detail and the inability to make comments? Pfff.

    1. As scrolling up the page, another thought crosses my mind… Does Thune, Noem, Jackley, Johnson, SD Bankers Ass & Americans for Prosperity think blogs are credible?

  35. Someone needs to contact Jackley’s office and demand an investigation perhaps this would be a good job for one of our legislators.

  36. Forced error, spun terribly.

    Voters need to question not only the lack of judgment but also the “personal page” comment.

    1. It’s hard to see her comments as anything other than a lie. This was obviously a political page that had been linked to her official page.

  37. Do you people ever listen to yourselves? A major South Dakota Republican figure misdirects a few people to the wrong website and you all act like its jail time. Lock her up! Lock her up!

    Is this a joke?

    1. jj – Hilary shld serve jail time, for many reasons. I haven’t read any comments here saying Krebs shld go to jail, an investigation, yes, not jail. Let me guess, you think ppl who cross the border illegally aren’t breaking the law either? Breaking the law has consequences, big & small. If Krebs wasn’t doing anything wrong, why did the Vote605 app change? Hmmm…

    2. An elected official uses state resources to direct people to her campaign website.
      Are you trying to say that’s ok?

      1. Nope. Not trying to say its OK. She says it was an “oversight” and this thing wasn’t even noticed for months so it is a technical and meaningless violation until proven otherwise.

        What was the advantage she got out of it? Do you think that the few folks who stumbled on it were donating big bucks to her cause or something? That would be highly unlikely. And what was the harm done to others? Nada. Zilch.

        There is real corruption and then there is this stuff. Nothing-burgers. I actually prefer Dusty as a candidate but this is technical mistake that would have gained her next to nothing. Let her be.

        1. Jimmy you probably think if she took money from the state and nobody noticed that would be OK too as long as she put it back as soon as we found out.

  38. Jackley should look into this but only after she is no longer a candidate. He waited until after the US Senate Primary in 2014 to do anything in regards to Dr Bosworth.

    Same thing with the US Attorney.

    I do not think it was intentional, but it does look sketchy.
    Secretary Krebs should have 3 pages. Campaign, Personal, and Official(SOS). SOS Should stay at the office with new SOS(AKA Barnett) just like POTUS does.

  39. “They shouldn’t know who the secretary of state is,” Krebs told a lunch gathering of members of the Cen-Kota Republican Women in Fort Pierre.

    Says the SOS who stamps her picture on everything state related and redirects people to her campaign website.

    Please

  40. The fact that a Republican discovered this “mini-scandal” on a sitting Republican official before a Democrat did should speak to the strength of the GOP in SD.

    That being said – this is minor minor issue. Poor spinning on Krebs part in response but she would have very little to gain from this. Lacking quality of work and efficiency? Maybe. But definitely zero corruption. Clearly an oversight.

    1. What does Steve Nelson have to do with Krebs breaking election law. Looks like an attempt by Krebs and her election team at discrediting the accusations against her. I think it’s time for them to take this a little more seriously.

      1. Stace is in the bag for Krebs, the only thing he gets fired up about is fake controversy and nothingburgers.

  42. Sheesh…can’t you tell how many different people actually clicked on this link through the 605 app. This could be a “Big Nothinburger” . I hate seeing people drawn up and quartered. Wouldn’t you have people hired to do your techie stuff? I know you are ultimately responsible, but ….sheesh. “A big Nothinburger” I say.

  43. I think the fact that the Associated Press picked this up shows the depth of the seriousness of the issue. The Secretary of State used State resource for political gain whether intended or unintended does not matter she broke election law and should be prosecuted for it. No one should be above the law especially our elected officials!

  44. She was just vicious to Jason Gant for him doing a fraction of what she has done. Where is Stan Adelstein on this one?

  45. I think it’s important to consider that she has change the 605 app this proves that what was taking place was wrong it’s like an admission of guilt. If there’s an investigation should be found guilty of violating election law. She will not be able to win a congressional seat or maintain her post as Secretary of State I think the best thing to do now is resign.

    1. Or maybe it was an accident and as soon as she was aware she pulled it down?

      Basically it was a wrong hyperlink pasted in the wrong spot.

      1. No, it wasn’t just a wrong hyperlink. There isn’t a “proper” hyperlink for them to use. The current SOS office doesn’t have an official Facebook page, only a political page for Senator/then SOS/then House candidate Shantel Krebs.

        Two years ago they made the decision to link the state app to a political page. At the same time they made the decision to make that political page look more like an official SOS office page. This wasn’t a mistake. This was a conscious decision.

      2. Or maybe it was an accident… Sorry officer, it was an accident. I didn’t know what the speed limit was… I don’t think that’s how the law works. Breaking the law has repercussions, ignorance is no excuse.

  46. It will be interesting to see if the new government accountability board will take this up as their first action.

    1. What is more important than our chief election officer breaking election laws? That seems like exactly why they were created. I guess if she took money rather than the official FB page it would be more direct.

  50. So, how has this been resolved ? Did they totally eliminate the fb link from the 605 app, since there is no SOS fb page? Or did they make a new SOS fb page ? A previous writer was correct, she should have had 3 separate fb pages. The SOS page should never been eliminated since she was still the SOS, and it could be transitioned to the new SOS in 2019.

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