Radical right-wing candidate for governor Lora Hubbel jumped on the South Dakota Citizens for Liberty bandwagon yesterday and lambasted SDGOP chairman Dan Lederman for being a registered Democratic voter in Iowa. But the real story here isn’t that Dan Lederman switched parties or that, in Hubbel’s words, “our GOP has been highjacked by political opportunists who don’t share our conservative values.” The real story is that Dan Lederman may have committed voter registration fraud.
First, let’s look at the Iowa voter registration record that Hubbel circulated yesterday:
This printout from Jasper County, Iowa, shows one Dan Isaac Lederman (with the same birthdate as listed for “our” former legislator Dan Lederman on our LRC website) registered to vote as a Democrat since October 1998 in Newton, Iowa. The registration lists “120 N 2nd Ave E Newton, IA 50208” as residence address and “641-791-2555” as home phone.
Web searches both show that address and phone are connected to Lederman Bail Bonds:
Lederman’s voter registration record indicates he hasn’t voted in Iowa since the 2000 primary. Iowa state law 48A.28.2(b) says that the election commissioner shall send a notice to a voter “who has not voted in two or more consecutive general elections and has not registered again” to confirm that that voter still exists at the given address. If the commissioner gets no response, the commissioner marks the voter as “inactive.” Per 48A.30.1(f), if a voter remains inactive for two successive general elections, the commission cancels the registration.
Lederman’s Iowa registration was marked “active” as of July 10, 2017. The registration audit log shows activity on “correspondence notices” in 2012 and 2014, while Lederman was a Republican member of the South Dakota Legislature living in Dakota Dunes, SD. For Lederman’s Iowa voter registration status to remain active, either someone in Iowa forget to click the “Cancel” button on Lederman’s record, or Lederman had to reply to one of those correspondence notice and assert that he remains a voter at 120 N 2nd Ave E in Newton, Iowa.
Iowa law 39A.2.1(a) says an individual commits “registration fraud” if the individual “Produces, procures, submits, or accepts a voter registration application that is known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, forged, or fraudulent.” Registration fraud is included among the most serious election crimes, alongside vote fraud, duress, bribery, conspiracy, and voting equipment tampering, warranting Class D felony punishment.
Iowa law 48A.5.2(d) says an eligible Iowa elector shall “Not claim the right to vote in more than one place. A registrant shall be presumed to revoke any earlier claim of residence for voter registration purposes.”
Iowa law 48A.5A.2 says, “A residence for purposes of this chapter cannot be established in a commercial or industrial building that is not normally used for residential purposes unless the building is used as a primary nighttime residence.”
Iowa law 48A.11.1(c) requires a registrant to give “The address at which the registrant resides and claims as the registrant’s residence for voting purposes.” The subsequent clause (l) requires the registrant to sign “A statement that lists each eligibility requirement, contains an attestation that the registrant meets all of the requirements, and requires the signature of the registrant under penalty of perjury.” Subclause 2(c) includes on the voter registration form a statement that “The penalty provided by law for submission of a false voter registration form, which shall be the penalty for perjury as provided by section 902.9, subsection 1, paragraph “e”.
Lederman, using this kerfuffle to advocate for a Trumpian national voter-suppression registry, told Dana Ferguson yesterday, “he wasn’t aware he was still registered to vote in Iowa.” But Lederman could not have remained “active” in the Iowa voter registry without his responding to an inquiry from an Iowa election commissioner about his election status at some point in the past few years to maintain his status as a registered Iowa voter.
The story here isn’t that Dan Lederman was once a Democrat. It’s that, throughout his time as a South Dakota legislator and now as chair of a South Dakota political party, Dan Lederman appears to have actively maintained cotemporaneous voter registration in two states. That story has three possible logical conclusions (in order of spectacularity):
- Someone or some computer in Iowa messed up.
- Lora Hubbel is making stuff up.
- Dan Lederman committed felony voter registration fraud (and lied about it in the press).
Sounds like the kind of voter fraud that cost Trump the popular vote.
Do you really think the Jew that lobbies for Muslims and has his business located in Iowa would be up to anything shady? C’mon. Just another day in Dan’s world.
Half of Drumpf’s cabinet and most of his family members are registered to vote in multiple states. Nothing happened to them as far as being convicted of vote fraud. Just saying.
Somebody should file a complaint with the county attorney in that Iowa county and initiate an investigation the documents Lederman signed to get registered in a commercial building and to maintain his Iowa voter registration as “active” for all of those years. What did Lederman sign, and when did he sign it?
I sent this article to Dan Bartlett at Sioux City Journal so they could check for them selves about Lederman’s voter registration. Let’s see if any thing comes of it. Bartlett interviewed Lederman in March of 2017.
Why might Lederman intentionally maintain voter registration in Iowa?
Iowa Code Annotated Title Xv. Judicial Branch And Judicial Procedures Subtitle 4.Probate—fiduciaries Chapter 636. Sureties–fiduciaries–trusts—investments Surety Companies 636.11.
An agent for a company authorized to engage in the business of becoming surety upon bonds must be a resident of this state for the purpose of acting on behalf of the surety company with respect to any bond or bail in criminal cases.
http://fugitiverecovery.com/bail-bond-laws/directory/iowa/
My previous email should have read Dan Hayworth and now I am confused as to where Bartlett came from. Please ignore lasr entry.
Lock him up!
Ror! Ror! ROOOOR! You asked the fundamental question and appear to have nailed the answer! Lederman wasn’t voting in Iowa, so there had to be some other motive for him to maintain that voting registration. Does that statute mean that, without voter registration status in Iowa, Lederman would not be able to participate in his Iowa bail bonds operations? He can still own the bail bonds shops, right? Help me understand exactly how that statute would affect his business.
Here’s a link to the official Iowa version of the statute Ror cites.
Yeah, lock him up. He’s fraudulently maintaining a fraudulent voter registration in Iowa to fraudulently conduct business there.
The outrage is totally understandable, but not the shock. It’s par for the course.
I wonder who else is registered to vote elsewhere? If we don’t have computers in the clouds we’d probably never know. Does anybody know if the Iowegians can register in South Dakota to vote? That would give mike, who is from Iowa, a much higher standing on Mr. H’s blog.
Sorry Grudz, I used to be registered to drink at the old Buckaroo Bar in Hudson, long before it was torn down. I have never lived anywhere outside Obrien and Cherokee counties in iowa. I never plan to live anywhere else.
But, yer state needs new blood in the lege and I’m just the guy to advise the new bloods.
Hey, Grudz, where are you registered to vote?
For once, Grudz may actually be onto something. DFP readers may recall that the SD Sec’y of State’s Office signed on to participate in an interstate cooperative effort led by the Kansas SOS to tag voter registrations that were duplicated in other states. The objective – ostensibly – was to identify and punish voter fraud. Of course, most of the registrations that were flagged came from among common Hispanic surnames (e.g. Gonzalez, Ramirez, Rodriguez, etc.) not Lederman, Daniel (for example).
Personally, I would be interested to know whether any of those voters who claim a SD mailbox as their official residence might also be registered (and voting?) in one or more other jurisdictions as well.
I’m Facebook friends with Donald Pay in Great Britain. There are a few other Donald Pay’s in the USA. Of course, Pay is an English name, which means we are more than likely white, so I will likely not be challenged. Think of all the Smiths and Millers and Jacobsons, oh my, who must be voting in thirty or more states!!!! Yeah, they’re mostly all white, so, no, they won’t be challenged either. But if your name is Gonzalez, you are committing voter fraud!!!! These guys are racist cuckoos, and they’re running our government. My daughter has a friend in Texas who grew up in Rapid City. She’s white but married a Mexican American and took his name. Gotta wonder if this white woman is gonna be challenged. All she’ll have to do is say, “See Trump, I’m white.” She gets to vote. A real Mexican American with the same name, “Sorry, you’re committing voter fraud.”
Racism is a sick thing.
And, just to follow up, you can make a point without making a snide reference to someone’s religion, South DaCola. I don’t much like Lederman, but his religion has nothing to do with this behavior.