Voter ID suits remain unfiled

| Friday, November 05, 2004

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

GOP official expects more charges of voting problems.

By Denise Ross, Journal Staff Writer

South Dakota Republican Party executive director Jason Glodt said he expects more charges of voter intimidation on Nov. 2, even though the group that made those charges after the June 1 election has not made good on its promise to sue.

"When those allegations were first made, they were baseless," Glodt said.

He was referring to charges made in the media by the nonprofit American Indian voting-rights group Four Directions Committee.

Days after South Dakota's special U.S. House election on June 1, Four Directions executive director Bret Healy said his group had identified between 15 and 20 voters wrongfully denied the right to vote because they lacked photo identification.

"Something broke down in South Dakota's election process, and we're going to do everything we can to ensure this doesn't happen again," Healy said a week after the election.

Healy said then that Four Directions would file lawsuits in federal court in Rapid City, Pierre and Sioux Falls on grounds of civil-rights violations. At the time, Healy said he wanted a federal court to overturn South Dakota's voter ID law.

Under the state law passed in 2003, voters should present a photo ID when voting. In lieu of presenting a photo ID, voters can sign an affidavit attesting to their identity.

On June 1, the first statewide election under the new law, reports were prevalent of election workers turning away voters rather than offering them an affidavit.

Glodt said he doesn't believe Four Directions officials ever intended to sue.

"They were simply playing politics. Unfortunately, we expect it to happen again," Glodt said.

Healy said Friday that he decided to back off the lawsuits after the state Election Board passed a regulation that requires signs explaining the affidavit option to be posted in polling places. And he said Four Directions didn't have enough money to pay for the suits.

"We never filed suit because I didn't put enough money together yet. I emphasize 'yet,'" Healy said. "The fact of the matter is, those aren't baseless. Just because they didn't go to the courthouse door ... we chose to use the process to address it. That's why we have the sign requirement; it's, in large measure, because Four Directions was pushing for that kind of information to be out there."

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