A South DaCola foot solider voted early today at the IPC in the school board election. He requested an absentee ballot for a relative and was told to come back another day because the election official with the School District, Bev Chase, was gone today.
While I don’t take issue with Chase taking a day off, I do take issue with the fact that early voting has begun and she hasn’t trained anyone to handle such a request.
I think we will see a historic low for voter turnout on June 6th, and it’s a disgrace.
“12-19-1.2. Time for absentee voting. Absentee voting shall begin neither earlier nor later than forty-six days prior to the election including any voter identified as being covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (42 U.S.C. 1973ff-1).”
I found this in the state statutes. This applies to school board elections, doesn’t it? And if it does, then the inability of the Board to have someone currently available to assist with absentee voting is a violation of state law, isn’t it?….
I thought the voter has to request an absentee through the SD SOS absentee application process. I don’t think I could make a request for another person. Wouldn’t that lead to voter fraud?
Emoluments, quoting state/federal law doesn’t work. Local government considers itself sovereign. Liberty locally means no handcuffs. Try Minnesota, it’s outside Sanford authority.
If you find a voting location, let me know. If you do, find me a VHS or Cassette player too.
Normally the absentee request forms should be readily available for anyone to pick up and returned properly for a ballot.
I never understood why school boards in South Dakota weren’t required to hold their election in conjunction with other non-partisan elections in the spring. Just put them on the same ballot as all the other municipal officials. They’d get better turnout and it makes life easier for voters – one less election to vote in.
DS, state law sure helped the pro administration building folks, though, didn’t it? You would think it would work both ways with the citizens and their government(s)?…..
Perhaps what’s wrong with the system is state and federal government makes rules but can’t or won’t enforce them.
I am a close friend to the person who voted you and we both read your blog. She was completely offended by this because this conversation never took place. An absentee ballot for a relative was never requested. Not even an application for an absentee ballot was requested. I read this blog from time to time thinking what I’m reading is somewhat an accurate account of what the topic is, but after reading this and knowing its completely false, makes me question what else on here is completely false….
FC, did you read my post?
I called and verified with this person as to what exactly happened. They said they went to early vote on Monday (which they were permitted to do) and when they asked for the absentee for a relative, they were told since Bev wasn’t there they didn’t know the process. If Bev WASN’T there, how would she know if someone showed up and asked for an absentee ballot.
I went today around 11 AM and requested to vote, the reception called Bev and when she couldn’t get a hold of Bev she had another person help me, I think her name was Darla, I was also permitted to vote.
Not sure how Bev would know what is going on if she wasn’t present.
l3wis Darla is an acquaintance of mine so I called her and verified with her as well so I can give you a knowledgeable response. As you are aware since you went in to vote today, someone else IS knowledgeable of the process of absentee voting besides Bev. Darla also verified that all her training came from Bev (this isn’t the first time Darla has worked an election by the way) and Bev was at the office all day Monday. So unless the request was made to someone else other than Darla or Bev, not too sure who your source would’ve asked.
Well then I guess it is her word against his, not much I can do about that. He would have no reason to lie about it, so I’m not sure what exactly was discussed. Like I said, when I voted today Bev was unavailable, so there is a good possibility that she was IN the office yesterday but unavailable.
How dare you call me a liar when you were not in the room. I asked several questions and could not get any answers because Bev was out of the building according to the person assisting me. The receptionist also said Bev was not in the building so she had to have someone else unlock the room so voting could take place.
The incompetence of the whole operation is disgraceful and it looks like we might have to question other things… hmmmmm……