Voter ID hearings set

| Thursday, July 08, 2004

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Signs at polling places should be regulated, secretary of state says.

By Denise Ross, Journal Staff Writer

Two state committees will hold hearings on the reported voting problems from the June 1 statewide election.

The state Board of Elections will conduct a rules hearing on proposed changes in the administrative rules that govern elections, and the Legislature's State-Tribal Relations Committee will hold a separate hearing on the matter.

The State-Tribal Relations Committee meeting is set for Thursday, July 15, at the state Capitol in Pierre. The state Board of Elections also will meet in Pierre, but Secretary of State Chris Nelson said he had not had time to select a date on Wednesday.

Reports of voters who lacked a photo ID being turned away from the polls when state law allows them to sign an affidavit swearing to their identity has spawned the threat of lawsuits, generated media stories and prompted Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to launch the Daschle Voting Rights Project.

Nelson and state Board of Elections member Linda Lea Viken agreed Wednesday that the elections board should hold a hearing in time to make changes before the Nov.2 election, they both said. The elections board hearing will be devoted primarily to adopting rules to govern what kinds of signs could be posted at polling places to explain the state's voter ID law.

People have complained that, at various locations, signs posted outside the polling place said "Photo ID required" but lacked any mention of the affidavit option.

"Should there be signs up? If so, what ought they say?" Nelson said.

He said people should understand that the board can't investigate specific incidents from June 1.

"The parameters are narrow. If somebody was turned away, there's nothing the board can do about that. The board has no authority to conduct a law enforcement investigation," Nelson said. "We're looking for, what can we do to improve things?"

In response to Daschle's request for an investigation, Nelson forwarded some complaints from June 1 to the South Dakota U.S. Attorney's Office. U.S. Attorney Jim McMahon said he would look into the complaints but said the initial information wasn't detailed enough to draw any conclusions.

In addition to writing new rules, Viken said she believes the elections board can hear testimony about specific events from June 1, and board members might be able to recommend rules or legislation based on those accounts.

"People need to be able to air this," Viken, a Rapid City attorney, said. "A rules hearing is the appropriate way to go. We also should hear other testimony about other problem areas."

The board will meet again after the Nov. 2 election, and Nelson wants to discuss possible legislation for the 2005 session at that meeting, he said.

Next week's State-Tribal Relations Committee will include an open forum where people can testify about the full range of their voting experiences, committee chairman Rep. Stan Adelstein, R-Rapid City, said. In addition, Nelson and Tom Shortbull will address the committee. Shortbull, of Rapid City, is on a board of advisers to the federal Election Assistance Commission and has called for the repeal of the state's voter ID law.

Adelstein voted for the voter ID law in 2003 and said he probably would oppose a repeal. But he wants to hear testimony on the matter. If American Indians believe the law was meant to suppress their votes, Adelstein believes his committee should hear those concerns.

"I had no sense this was an Indian issue. Had I felt that way, I would have spoken out against it," Adelstein said.

Adelstein said he supported the voter ID law because in the early 1960s, he observed out-of-state workers temporarily living in Rapid City voting multiple times in an election. The sheriff collected photographs of the workers voting at various locations, but Adelstein said there was little that could be done at the time.

"I went to Pierre asking for some way we could tighten the law. One old legislator said, ‘Young man, we would rather have two people vote who are not entitled to than have one be deprived of the franchise,'" Adelstein said.

He disagreed at the time and still does, Adelstein said.

Also on Wednesday, state Republican Party officials asked their Democratic counterparts to agree to dispatch bipartisan poll watching teams on Nov. 2.

"Republican and Democrat volunteers would work as an observation team," GOP Chairman Randy Frederick said.

State Democratic Party Chairwoman Judy Olson Duhamel said she had not seen Frederick's letter, sent late Wednesday, but she said she still supports the call for a nonpartisan voter education effort she made in April.

"I say, ‘Yes, thank you,'" Olson Duhamel said. "In addition, we also should share the responsibility of educating voters."

Contact Denise Ross at 394-8438 or denise.ross@rapidcityjournal.com