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Sdakota dems 12k Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2002/10/18/news/local/news03.txthttp://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2002/10/18/news/local/news03.txt
$12,000 paid to person in voter fraud probe
By AP and Journal Staff
The South Dakota Democratic Party reportedly paid the person at the center of a voter fraud investigation more than $12,000 in the last three months.
The figure comes from Federal Election Commission records from July, August and September.
They show that Becky Red Earth-Villeda received 18 paychecks totaling $12,867. The reason given for the money were administrative or voter drives. One check for $3,500 was credited to travel expenses.
Democratic Party spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg said the contractors are paid by the number of voter registration cards and absentee ballots they collect.
The news marks the latest development in a widening controversy over voter registration and absentee ballots in and around American Indian reservations in South Dakota.
One out of every 10 new voter registrations in Shannon County is being investigated, said Sherrill Dryden, county auditor for Fall River County, which handles voter registration for adjacent Shannon County.
The problems are related to an effort to increase voter turnout among Indians in South Dakota for the Nov. 5 election.
Shannon County makes up about half of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Dryden said more than 1,000 new registrations have come into her office from the reservation this fall. Some were from new voters and others from people who have not voted for a while and needed their registration updated.
"We had different birthdays and different signatures. Some of the middle initials were wrong," Dryden said. "We just got suspicious when we see a birthday that's a day or two off or a year or two off. It just sent up a red flag."
The state and the FBI have been asked to investigate, she said.
But Shannon County is not the first South Dakota county to report such problems.
Elsewhere in the state, officials said duplication, registering dead people and forging of signatures have been reported.
About 17,000 new registrations have been reported since the June 4 primary, and the level of absentee voting has exceeded that of a presidential election year.
The state Democratic Party fired Red Earth-Villeda, a contract employee, after registration and absentee ballot problems surfaced in Dewey and Ziebach counties.
Jackson and Corson county auditors reported similar voter problems Thursday.
Jackson County Auditor Vickie Wilson said she turned over seven absentee ballot requests to local authorities this week. "I was fairly certain that someone other than the voter could have signed them," Wilson said. She said she also provided the FBI with a total of 20 absentee ballot requests for investigation.
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office is looking into the matter.
Jackson County Sheriff Bruce Madsen said three people have advised him that they did not sign the requests, and two others didn't remember signing them. Madsen said he only found one person so far who had confirmed signing a request.
He said this is the first time in his 27 years in the sheriff's office that he has had to investigate suspicious voter signatures. "It sure is going to throw some doubt into the election," Madsen said.
Wilson said she had also received several incomplete registration cards in the past few months, but she did not consider them suspicious.
Corson County Auditor Dorothy Schuh said Thursday she had turned over a half dozen voter registrations and absentee ballot requests to authorities for investigation. The FBI and the South Dakota Attorney General's Office are looking into those requests. This is Schuh's first year as auditor, but she had been in the office for five years and hadn't experienced any suspicious voter documents prior to this year.
Attorney General Mark Barnett said the state Democratic Party has not been implicated in the suspicious documents, and that party officials have cooperated with the investigation.
In a separate Indian voter program in Pennington County, two brothers are being investigated for forging signatures on voter registration documents. Pennington County Auditor Julie Pearson said authorities are looking into possible inaccuracies in 230 voter registration cards turned in there.
So far, four cards have been found with inaccuracies, Pennington County Sheriff Don Holloway said.
Pearson said the only problems now are with voter registrations. As for requests for absentee ballots, Pearson said rules do not require auditors to check signatures against a registration card. In Pennington County, as many as 10 percent of the total voters might vote absentee, Pearson said. "We expect a lot and we get a lot," Pearson said. "We cannot check every signature."
This is the first time Pearson has ordered a voter fraud investigation since becoming auditor in 1987.
Officials in Buffalo County, which contains a large section of the Crow Creek Indian Reservation, said they also are investigating a handful of new voter registration cards.
"I had a few questionable cards that I gave to the sheriff," said Buffalo County Auditor Elaine Wulff.
Buffalo County Sheriff Wayne Willman said he is still investigating the cards and has not made a report to the state attorney general's office. Officials would not give additional details on the matter.
Barnett said Wednesday he is not prepared to say there are widespread problems with voter registration in and around Indian reservations.
"It is too early to categorize it one way or another. My focus is on one person," Barnett said, referring to Red Earth-Villeda.
Barnett said he is not involved in the Pennington County case. Local authorities are handling that investigation, he said.
Auditors and deputy auditors in Lawrence, Butte, Meade, Harding, Perkins, Custer and Haakon counties told the Rapid City Journal this week they hadn't had any suspicious signatures or registrations so far this year.
The deadline for voter registration is Monday, Oct. 21.
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Copyright © 2002 The Rapid City Journal
Rapid City, SD
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