The Senate Local Government committee goes to work at 8 a.m. tomorrow to make voting easier for some people but not for others.
The committee first tackles Senate Bill 33, Secretary of State Jason Gant's latest swipe at American Indian voters. SB 33 would prohibit state and local governments from using any non-governmental money to run elections. The only identifiable instance of such private funding of elections in South Dakota is Four Directions' funding of satellite voting stations for underserved, isolated American Indian communities. SB 33 thus targets the efforts of private organizations that would have the temerity to fight South Dakota's persistent Indian voter suppression with their own hard-earned cash.
Expect to hear bluff and bluster about how SB 33 would keep big money out of elections. I have yet to figure out how accepting private money to fund additional polling places makes voters or local officials more susceptible to the influence of that private donor. But if that argument comes up, and if legislators accept it, then I will eagerly embrace the amendment that must logically follow, in which Senator Buhl O'Dennell or Senator Lederman will propose to add a section to SB 33 prohibiting political candidates from accepting money from any entity other than a newly established state election fund, modeled after the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. After all, if funding a satellite voting center might unfairly sway an election, imagine what might happen if private donors gave money directly to politicians.
After Senate Local Government gets done raising another barrier to Indian voting rights (sure, why not, Chairman Kirkeby? passing SB 33 will make establishing a pattern of institutional denial of voting rights in a federal civil rights case so much easier), they'll act to protect the voting rights of folks whose votes don't make them nervous. Senate Bill 34 makes it easier for soldiers (many of whom are American Indian) and other overseas citizens to register to vote and obtain their absentee ballots electronically. Boy, you'd think that if the state can put electoral integrity at risk by dissolving ballots into electrons and sending them flitting overseas on the Internet, the state could tolerate paying a couple nice old ladies to sit with a locked ballot box in Fort Thompson for a few weeks to accept early absentee ballots from voters in person.
Finally, the committee will consider Senate Bill 35, which clarifies rules for postponing a local election due to weather. SB 35 clarifies that absentee voting shall continue through any one-week election delay, which sems fair, since folks planning to vote in person on a snowed-out Election Day may not be able to rearrange their schedules to be in town on the new make-up day. SB 35 also reaffirms that we don't want a little thing like difficulty in driving to the polls to deny people their chance to vote...
...wait, that sounds familiar. Why again did we want satellite voting centers in Fort Thompson, Wanblee, and Eagle Butte? Oh yeah, because folks there weather ongoing difficulties in obtaining safe, reliable transportation to the polls.
Senators who care consistently about protecting voting rights will vote aye on SB 35 and SB 34. They will vote nay on SB 33.
"That’s a start, said Bret Healy, consultant to Native voting-rights group Four Directions, which is advising Montana tribes on Wandering Medicine v. McCulloch. “The full content of the emails must be released. Even learning in the current, tougher report that the messages are ‘disparaging’ or went to ‘colleagues’ and ‘court staff’ isn’t enough. What did they say? Who received them? How did they reply? Cebull was a federal judge. The public deserves to know.”"
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/01/20/federal-court-scandal-release-racist-emails-say-native-advocates-153175#.Ut7VewpAdhg.twitter
SB 33 is likely to pass as Cory states. it is also another blatant act of racism that South Dakota so proudly hails.
These Senators and Representatives are likely Christians that preach the U.S. Constitution. They may have read it, but don't understand it. All men created equal and having a right to vote should just be blocked out by any state threatened by minority voters.
If they get their way, and probably will, what would prevent tribes from opening and operating voting centers?
This does not appear to prevent providing private funds to tribes and then they could fund an election improvement. My guess is that tribes are not political subdivisions of the state of South Dakota and I doubt the tribes would reject funding from another source. That would be a round-about way.
If control over such funding is the aim of the legislation, there would be other ways such as an elected bi-partisan or non-partisan panel or committee to maintain control without eliminating any such funding. That seems to toss the baby out with the bathwater.
Don Frankenfeld suggested that all contributions and funding for any campaign or political organization should be funneled through state funds that are transparent and audited, etc. That seems to make sense.
There is a difference between attempting to alter election processes and in electing candidates however. That doesn't mean we all should not know who or what is attempting to influence election results.
Has Gant or anybody else actually shown any real problems with contributions to improve election processes? This appears to be a solution in search of a problem and that does seem to make it a racist attempt to stifle voting.
The voting ID requirements seem to me to be more despicable and unnecessary and I do not understand why female voters of all races have not raised holy hell.
Four Directions opened the door to outside funding by privately funding a remote satellite absentee voting location in Eagle Butte at the Tribal Headquarters in the last General Election. They funded a County activity, an activity that residents in only a few counties enjoy, an place to vote absentee in person outside of the County Courthouse, see SDCL 12-19-2.1. Even Four Directions has backed off from privately funding this activity. While at the same time saying it really is cheap and inexpensive to fund a remote satellite location they want Federal Help America Vote Act money to pay for it. This isn't just because they believe the taxpayers should pay for this activity because it is a responsibility, its because they don't want to keep the door open to the Republican Party or its sympathizers from paying for remote locations of their own, think of the possibilities, for example: Hutterite colonies, Dunes Golf Course Country Club, any very republican city outside of the county seat. This really could be used to manipulate the system. I think that 12-19-2.1 (http://legis.sd.gov/Statutes/Codified_Laws/DisplayStatute.aspx?Type=Statute&Statute=12-19-2.1) should already prevent this but this should help. This was brought by the bi-partisan Board of Elections (http://my605.com/pierrereview/?p=9911) who has never carried water for Jason Gant before so that removes your big evil Gant conspiracy to deny Indians the right to vote, and yes after some modifications it was passed without opposition (http://sdsos.gov/content/html/elections/electvoterpdfs/2014/BOE/010914Minutes.pdf).