Minnehaha County Intimidation and Threats

Concerned citizens of Minnehaha County have been attending county commission meetings regularly for about two years. They have been speaking out about concerns with elections, pipelines, ordinances, and more. The Minnehaha County Commission has refused dozens of requests and a signed petition requesting an agenda item or a special session to discuss elections. They refuse to admit their culpability in fraud as they are the ones who certify the unverifiable election results of the county and they sign and fund the contracts with ES&S.

Early on, the question as to who has authority over the auditor and the elections couldn’t produce a real answer. First it was the commission, then it was the SOS, then it was the people. The real answer is the auditor answers to the people. When Ben Kyte was the Minnehaha County Auditor, the Minnehaha State’s Attorney position on 12-17B-3. Authority of governing body to adopt, experiment with or abandon system. was that the Auditor makes the decisions on how to run their elections.

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 for use by the State Board of Elections.

Now that Leah Anderson is the Minnehaha County Auditor, their interpretation of the same law has changed and now “the governing body” is the county commission. (IN THEIR OPINION) Why this about face in their policy when Anderson was elected? Could it be the fact that Anderson wants to verify the vote with hand count audits?

It was obvious that the county commission held Kyte in high regard as they used every opportunity to gush over his performance. So much so that they gave him pay increases regularly. Kyte was appointed by the Commission in November of 2020 and started January 1, 2021. The base pay for the auditor position was $86,632.00, but Kyte was started at $114,400. December of 2021, Kyte was given a raise to $120,120.00. Even after he had been voted out of office, on December 27 the commission increased his pay by $17,409.60 to $137,529.60 annually for the last three months of his term.

After Anderson was sworn in March, 2023, Chairwoman Jean Bender immediately set Anderson's salary to $89,232/yr citing her lack of experience; which is nearly $50,000 less than Kyte was making. In the resolution below setting the statutory minimum salary, the commission clearly states “it is the sense of the County Commission that these statutory minimum annual salaries are inadequate compensation for the duties discharged by these officials.” (Unless they aren’t a fan of the current office holder, it seems.) Bender and the rest of the commission did not make any effort to discover Anderson’s qualifications of 30 years of experience in accounting and auditing, plus her knowledge of elections. It is easy to see the commission was clearly discriminating against Anderson for political reasons.

Anderson’s first months in office were met with lack of cooperation by Human Resources Director Carey Deaver. Anderson wanted to change job descriptions and modify positions to fit the goals of her office. She also wanted to appoint a Chief Deputy like the Minnehaha County Treasurer and Register of Deeds had. She has every right to do that as an elected official. This is standard procedure in the County Handbook. Each elected official/department head may appoint a deputy. However, the HR department found every excuse in the book to block her.

On the day before retiring, Carol Muller, Assistant to the Minnehaha County Commission, met with Anderson to tell her if she hired anyone from SD Canvassing, her entire staff would quit. Was that a threat? Was that intimidation? It is notable that Muller was making over $170,000/year.

During Kyte’s term, he hired April Pontrelli for the open Election Coordinator position. Former Election Coordinator, Kate Weir had resigned after the June 7, 2022 primary election disaster led by Kyte. Pontrelli resigned in June, 2023. Anderson put the position out for hire and screened many applicants for the position. An interesting side note: Pontrelli went to work for the DCI to “investigate things she was passionate about”. Although, she would not disclose what it was she would be doing.

BEFORE the hiring of a new election coordinator was made public and BEFORE the county commission meeting agenda was posted for the next week, a leaked hit piece was posted on a trash internet blog.

The hit piece starts out like this:

Hmmm, that is interesting! Rumor? Who was the tipster of the un-corroborated gossip? Was it someone inside the county who had knowledge of the pay scale change? Who would know those things other than the HR Director, the County Commissioners, or direct reports? Is this public disclosure of private HR records legal?

This is not rational behavior. What are these people so afraid of? It’s pretty obvious that having employees inside the office that owe no allegiance to big money, the SDACO, NACO, machine company vendors, or any other entity other than the United States and South Dakota Constitutions is a serious threat to those already in power.

WHAT ARE THEY HIDING AND WHY ARE THEY AFRAID?

God promises in Luke 8:17 “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.”

Nothing is hidden from God.