I recently mentioned the great lengths being taken to stop the hand count petitioning effort currently going on in 43 counties across the state.
To the citizens of McPherson County, here are some facts. The petition to allow the people to vote and decide if they want to hand count rather than use ES&S tabulator machines and therefore take back our elections from a private, for-profit, out-of-state vendor, who has failed miserably at Elections Assistance Commission cyber security requirements, was denied by the county commissioners under the advice of their legal counsel at the April 2nd county commission meeting.
The First Amendment of the Constitution says the citizens have a right "to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
In SDCL 7-18A-11 "The right to propose an ordinance or resolution shall be exercised by filing with the auditor a petition in proper form containing the proposed ordinance or resolution, signed by the required number of qualified voters of the county. ....."
Just FYI: We turned in more than double the required number of signatures in just a little over a week. Many in the county were in support and willingly signed.
Once this initiated ordinance was filed, it should've received two readings by the commission and then a special election was to be held. Now, sadly, this will not happen.
The commissioners denied the petition on the grounds that the proposed ordinance must be in the power for the county to adopt. But, they DO have the power to adopt it under 12-17B-3 which states the counties have authority in regards to the conduct of elections. Furthermore, the initiated ordinance does NOT break state or federal laws as their legal counsel claims.
Imagine, for example, once we get enough signatures on the petitions for SB201 that they would be denied by the state and not placed on the ballot. This is what the commissioners have done here at the county level. They have denied your right to vote.
The states attorney says he fully expects a lawsuit from us. What? Why not just follow the law? Why is the county wasting taxpayer money to hire outside legal counsel to fight the citizens from exercising their constitutional rights and pushing Lawfare on the citizens? This is not right.
There's more to the story.
In the final days of the legislative session, some politicians in Pierre caught wind that the citizens of South Dakota were daring to exercise their constitutional rights with the initiated county ordinances and they quickly tried to put a stop to it. With very little notice, they brought the "hoghoused" bill, HB1140, to a Senate committee chaired by Senator Casey Crabtree, and including Senator Lee Schoenbeck. (Anyone recognize those two names?) This attempt to thwart the efforts by the citizens in counties to petition their government would've given county commissions the right to reject a petition, and, at one point, HB1140 would've repealed 12-17B-3 entirely, eliminating more local control.
These are the same people who are pushing the CO2 pipelines and eminent domain through SB201 that reverses 135 years of S.D. law precedence by taking away local zoning control, and then they had the audacity to try to take away local control on our elections as well!
Thankfully, HB1140, failed to pass on a dramatic tie vote in the House, but not until after Representative Will Mortenson shot up out of his chair at the last minute to try to revive the bill. (Does his name ring a bell also?)
I was there, and witnessed all this while sitting just steps away from Governor Noem in the gallery.
Since HB1140 failed, they are implementing it anyway by telling our county commissioners through the states attorney and outside counsel that they have the right to reject a petition.
This should tell you something folks. We need to wake up and realize what's going on.
It does make one wonder why they care so much whether we use machines or hand count our votes? I'll let you speculate on that one, but here is an interesting fact to chew on. During the last election in 2022, the Edison Election Night Reporting data showed all the candidates in the statewide races won and lost by the same percentages in every county in S.D. How is that possible? An algorithm perhaps? This is just one of the 600 pages of evidence compiled by citizen investigators over the last three years, and which to date has been denied its day in court.
However, the truth will come out eventually, much to the chagrin of some who want to protect the status quo and ignore the rot that has infested our state.
What our county elected officials don't realize is they are being used as pawns in a much bigger agenda.
Jodi Waltman, Wetonka, S.D.
Unofficial Tripp County Meeting Minutes by Robert Tate
The Tripp County Commissioners voted 5-0 to place the initiative ordinance to abandon the machine on the ballot for the June primary. The commissioners seemed somewhat subdued April 9th six days after the initiative petition to abandon the machine was turned in. The public’s demeanor was not subdued. Around 20 hand count proponents attended, some carrying signs that read like this, “Return local control to our elections” and “Don’t be another Lawrence County.” There was no public opposition or at least no one spoke in opposition at the meeting. After confirmation that the petition signatures were certified, 320 were turned in with 200 needed, a statement was read:
Over the past twenty years what had been locally run hand counted elections have become centralized, computerized, unverifiable elections. Control over election reporting and results has been given to third-party, for-profit vendors while the audit trail has disappeared.
We the people, the circulators of the initiative petition and its signers, seek to return control of our elections, transparency and our tax dollars to Tripp County.
Article 6 Sec. 26 of the South Dakota State Constitution clearly states:
“All political power is inherent in the people, and all free government is founded on their authority, and is instituted for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right in lawful and constituted methods to alter or reform their forms of government in such manner as they may think proper.”
After being asked about lawful and constitutional methods, the chairman explained that the commissioners need only to vote to place the ordinance on the ballot. A first and second reading was not necessary. The auditor said it would be put on the ballot along with the other primary contests. Ballots for the ordinance would be provided for Independents and non-party affiliates. Currently, the ballots are to be machine counted. This leaves us with the need to hand count or have a 100 % post election audit of the June primary in Tripp County.
The proposed ordinance in proper form is as follows:
AN ORDINANCE DEFINING THE USE OF AUTOMATIC TABULATORS WITHIN TRIPP
COUNTY
From the effective date of this ordinance, Tripp County ordains that automatic tabulating machine(s)/system(s) are hereby abandoned and prohibited from counting or tabulating Tripp County ballots for any elections in Tripp County as per South Dakota Codified Law “12-17B-3. Authority of governing body to adopt, experiment with or abandon system; Any governing body having supervision of elections within any political subdivision may adopt, experiment with, or abandon any automatic tabulating or electronic ballot marking system approved for use by the State Board of Elections. Any governing body may use the system in all or some of the precincts within its jurisdiction or in combination with any other type of voting system approved by the State Board of Elections.”
There was about 20 minutes of discussion about ES&S corruption, certification of the machines and security of elections in South Dakota. The benefit to county auditors of a tally sheet rules change was also discussed. Of course the machine vs hand count cost comparison was discussed. The hand count is about one third the cost of the machine, with the money staying in Tripp County. A commissioner schooled us on the need for both major political parties to be involved in a hand count. He lamented that we just could not get enough people to participate to hand count. The public informed the commissioners that South Dakota has about 100 years of hand count law. If you run short of one major political party, an Independent can serve as an election worker. If no Independents are available, “any registered voter” will qualify. SDL 12-15-2. Members of one political party cannot hold our election process hostage.
There was an interesting development during the meeting. The commissioners were informed that a public information request for the contract between Tripp County and ES&S had been denied by the county auditor citing SDCL 1-27-1.5. This denial was in June of 2022. When a formal request for the same public records was made at the meeting, the auditor was willing to turn them over. When asked why it was illegal for us to have these records 2 years ago but it is ok for us to have them now, a commissioner told me that the SD Secretary of State had sent a letter telling the auditor not to release public records concerning ES&S. What has changed in the last 2 years? SDCL 1-27-1.5 has not been repealed. Is it “legal” now because the time required to keep election records has passed?
It is clearly evident that county officials, in some cases not unwittingly, are participating in a statewide coverup of corruption in our election system. In this case, the coverup will not be worse than the crime. There is no greater crime than the savage effect that Communism has on the human condition.
Joseph Stalin once said:
“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”
Robert Tate, Tripp County, South Dakota
Sounds like the one horse Ne Legislature and the NACO wacko's siting in Co (LB 1390 declares us ,"FAKES" -ALLOWS CHARGES
... TO ALEDGED.). Board seats, like Douglas Co" past leader, MA BORGESON - thinks "WTP" ARE LIARS!