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South dakota questionable absentee ballots Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/10/14/news/local/news04.txthttp://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2004/10/14/news/local/news04.txt
GOP ballot woes spread
By Denise Ross, Journal Staff Writer
The controversy over questionable absentee ballot applications obtained by the South Dakota Republican Party from college students now includes a Black Hills State University student.
The state GOP's get-out-the-vote director, Larry Russell, and five other GOP workers resigned this week after questions arose over absentee ballot applications that were obtained on campuses by men but notarized by women employed by the Republican Party. State law requires notaries who sign an absentee ballot application to witness the voter signing the application.
The BHSU student's story matches those reported from students on three East River campuses.
A man came to Jesse Abbott's BHSU dorm room in Spearfish, he said, but a woman notarized his ballot application.
"He just came to my dorm and asked me if I wanted an absentee ballot," Abbott said Wednesday.
The 22-year-old from Gillette, Wyo., said no woman was present when he filled out the ballot application.
The notary on Abbott's ballot application is Jennifer Giannonatti, who is listed as a get-out-the-vote consultant with a Sioux Falls address on the South Dakota Republican Party's federal campaign finance report.
Giannonatti lists Sept. 30 as the day she signed and affixed a seal to Abbott's ballot application.
Giannonatti is not among the GOP workers who resigned, but another notary, Rachel Hoff, is.
South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long declined to comment in any detail about the scope of his office's investigation into the clouded ballot applications.
"The investigation is continuing," he said.
South Dakota Republican Party executive director Jason Glodt did not return a telephone call from the Rapid City Journal placed late Wednesday afternoon. A telephone listing for Giannonatti could not be found.
The law enforcement investigation was opened three weeks before the Nov. 2 general election and is reminiscent of similar problems that plagued the state Democratic Party at the same point in the 2002 election cycle.
Hotly contested U.S. Senate races have dominated both elections.
Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., is seeking re-election this year against Republican challenger John Thune, who lost the 2002 Senate race by 524 votes.
The reported 1,400 ballots thrown into question by this year's investigation could affect the outcome on Election Day, Nov. 2.
Daschle's campaign flagged Abbott's ballot application when campaign workers were dispatched to county auditor offices in jurisdictions with college campuses. Deputy campaign manager Dan Pfeiffer said there are many questions that need to be answered before Nov. 2.
"The fact that problems may have arisen with another Republican Party notary beyond those who resigned this week raises questions about how far and wide this spreads," Pfeiffer said.
Daschle told reporters last week that "those responsible ought to be held accountable."
Thune campaign manager Dick Wadhams said he is not worried that the investigation — which started with Thune's nephew Jeff Thune at South Dakota State University in Brookings — will disrupt the get-out-the-vote effort on which his campaign is relying.
"The South Dakota Republican Party, once it learned of the problem, determined the individuals within Victory who were apparently part of the problem. Those individuals are now gone. It's under new leadership," Wadhams said.
Russell was replaced with longtime Thune aide Herb Jones, who left a job with the federal Department of Energy to head up what the Republican Party has dubbed its Victory operation.
"I have lot of confidence in Herb Jones. I'm sure whatever problems existed are not there now," Wadhams said.
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