Trial set for man accused of fraud in vote registering

By Jim Holland, Journal Staff Writer | Tuesday, April 29, 2003

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RAPID CITY - A June 10 trial date has been set for a Rapid City man accused of forging voter-registration cards before last November's general election.

Lyle Duane Nichols, 45, faces five counts of forgery in connection with false registration cards submitted to the Pennington County Auditor's Office while he was a consultant to the Sioux Tribes Voter Education and Registration Committee.

If convicted, Nichols faces up to five years in prison and a maximum $5,000 fine for each felony count.

Nichols is accused of using names out of the phone book or the newspaper to falsely complete voter-registration forms.

Members of the auditor's office staff notified authorities after noticing errors in birth dates or middle initials on two cards submitted by Nichols. At least two of the registrations were made in the names of dead people, Sheriff Don Holloway said.

Holloway said the committee paid Nichols $756 for submitting 226 voter-registration cards. Nichols was one of about 24 consultants who were paid a stipend for each registration submitted.

Nichols' defense attorney, Mike Polk of the Pennington County Public Defenders Office, said he expected the trial to last one day if plea negotiations with the state were unsuccessful.

"We're still having discussions with the state, but we wanted to get a trial date set so we don't have to keep having these hearings every three weeks," Polk told 7th Circuit Judge John J. "Jack" Delaney.

Contact Jim Holland at 394-8415 or jim.holland@rapidcityjournal.com