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Law Allows SOS to Check Voter Registration of Petition Signers; Gant Just Lazy

Posts like these are probably why Jason doesn't return my calls....

Remember when Secretary of State Jason Gant said it's not his job to make sure elections run smoothly? Secretary Gant now offers a ridiculous excuse for failing to ensure the integrity of elections. Following the arrests of two former U.S. Senate candidates for filing bogus petitions, Secretary Gant tells us the law prevents him from checking the legitimacy of petition signatures:

Gant said all he can look at on candidates' petitions is whether they're complete -- rejecting signatures only for missing crucial information. It's only if an outside party challenges a candidate's nominating petitions that Gant can consider such major facts as whether a petition signer is a registered voter -- or even exists.

For example, Gant initially approved nominating petitions from Clayton Walker. Three weeks later he ruled that they contained almost 2,000 errors, including possibly hundreds of voters who don't actually exist.

Even if he had noticed the problems on Walker's petitions sooner, Gant said he couldn't have done anything about them until a challenge was filed.

"State law really puts all the responsibility to, as state law says, an interested party to go through and try and challenge any of those signature lines," Gant said [David Montgomery, "Gant: Officials Not Allowed to Check Petition Accuracy," Political Smokeout, 2014.06.05].

Once again, Secretary Gant misreads South Dakota law to excuse his own laziness. Let's review South Dakota Administrative Rule 05:02:08:00, which lays out the guidelines for accepting petitions:

When a petition is presented for filing, the person or governing board authorized to accept the petition for filing shall determine if it meets the following requirements for acceptance:

  1. The petition is in the form required by this chapter;
  2. The petition contains the minimum number of valid signatures, counted according to § 5:02:08:00.01. One or more invalid signatures on a petition section do not disallow other valid signatures on the section;
  3. Each section of the petition contains an identical heading and is verified by the circulator. The circulator may add the addresses of the petitioners and the dates of signing before completing the verification. The circulator may also add the printed name of the signer and the county of voter registration. Residence addresses may be abbreviated. The verification was completed and signed before an officer authorized to administer oaths;
  4. The declaration of candidacy contains the original signature of the candidate. Additional sections may have an original or photocopied signature of the candidate;
  5. If a petition is for a ballot question to be voted on statewide, the signatures were obtained after a copy of the text of the petition was filed with the secretary of state;
  6. The governing board or person authorized by statute to accept the petition shall, if requested, allow a petition circulator the opportunity to add missing information on the signature lines or circulator's verification on his or her petition provided the filing deadline has not passed; and
  7. Following the presentation of the petition for filing, names may not be removed from the petition.

Except for petitions to nominate candidates for school boards, the person who is authorized to accept petitions for filing need not check for voter registration of the signers. Petitions containing signatures in excess of the minimum number may be filed, but the excess signatures will be disregarded [SDAR 05:02:08:00].

Legal eagles, feel free to correct me. But the operative phrase here is "need not." This rule does not tie Secretary Gant's hands. It leaves them free to pick up the voter registration list or to leave it on the shelf. If Gant sees Dusty Cover, Cherry Drop, and Jeff Bridges on a petition, it's his choice whether to listen to his madly pinging B.S. detector and check the voter rolls or let the petition slide and pass the burden of investigation onto citizens, who have no way of knowing such evidence of crime against election law exists without paying the Secretary's office hundreds of dollars to obtain the petition and thousands of dollars to obtain a reliable voter registration list.

Only in Jason Gant's world do citizens have to pay Jason Gant so they can do Jason Gant's job.

Secretary Gant does not need to change the law to do his job. But if he's going to shirk and say citizens are the only ones who can do his job, he needs to change his office practices and make all petitions and voter registration lists public documents, available online, free of charge so we can all get that job done.

14 Comments

  1. larry kurtz 2014.06.06

    Curious why SDGOP doesn't pick all their nominees at its convention: is it just a show od democracy that the state endures a primary?

  2. Mark Schuler 2014.06.06

    Just eliminate Secretary Gants job and save the taxpayers money if the taxpayers got to do the job!

  3. Monty 2014.06.06

    Former Secretaries routinely checked a random 5% of the signatures for validity. Here's a link: thttp://ballotpedia.org/South_Dakota_petition_delays_indoor-smoking_ban

  4. 96 Tears 2014.06.06

    I listened to Gant on the radio this week explaining the limitations in his job to make sure crooks stay off the ballot. Seems he has virtually no control, by his own description, other than making sure there are enough names (phony or real) listed on petitions. Really? Why have the position as an elected position with a fat paycheck? Why not make it a small office under the Attorney General?

  5. Lynn 2014.06.06

    96 tears if the SOS is so limited regarding basic functions why have it? It's government waste unless a legislature is able to change that offices authority right?

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.06.06

    Gant's unwillingness to do his job is reason #1 we need a strong, vocal Dem to run for SOS and spend the next five months educating South Dakotans about their voting rights, the petition process, and the effort of the current administration to debase those rights and that process and dampen democracy. Who's running?

  7. Douglas Wiken 2014.06.06

    "The petition contains the minimum number of valid signatures," How can validity be determined without checking the signatures? Registration is not the only test that should be made. In a school board election, citizens want only residents of the district to vote.

    In statewide elections, registration should not even be required for petition signers. A valid SD address and residence with a real person should be all that is required. Not checking registration does not mean ignoring the rest of the factors that determine validity.

  8. Lynn 2014.06.06

    Bob Mercer posted this today regarding not checking signatures http://my605.com/pierrereview/?p=10759

    Just another glaring example why we need to overhaul our government here in good ole boy country.

  9. Roger Cornelius 2014.06.06

    If we don't have this law, we need one. If Gant does not want to do his job and making it the burden of voters, as he did with Walker and Bosworth, it needs to be required that in a certain time of receiving nominating petitions they be posted on line and free of charge.
    The only charge for copies of petitions and voter registration list should be a nominal fee for printing and mailing.

  10. lesliengland 2014.06.06

    cah-sos has people to do this for him (remember previous dated affidavit of staff). highlight "need not be" please

  11. Michael B 2014.06.06

    WAIT JUST A SECOND!

    Does it bug anyone else that the state of SD is selling our addresses?

  12. lesliengland 2014.06.06

    now I see the "need not" language above and in mercer's post.

  13. lesliengland 2014.06.06

    or woster, whoever. geeez.

  14. Donald Pay 2014.06.06

    I happen to agree with Gant on part of this. The petitioning process depends on the circulator to do the job legally. That's why personal witnessing by the circulator of each signature and the circulator's oath are absolutely critical. Any shortcuts or fraud have to be prosecuted. I hope these guy get a long stretch of prison time.

    At least in past years the SOS was not set up to check voter registration. Maybe that has changed. Still checking against voter registration rolls leads to lots of spurious disqualifications for dumb things like someone moved and hasn't yet updated their voter information. They are still registered to vote.

    Plus, at least with petitioned ballot questions, there is a constitutional issue. In my opinion, you don't have to be a registered voter to sign, just a qualified elector.

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