Last updated on 2023-05-13
The Lincoln County Commission meeting was packed with riled-up citizens yesterday. According to Nicole Ki’s live-tweeting, the commission room in Canton was filled to overflowing with resident debating approval approval of a big factory feedlot that would stink up a country church, pollute the water, and imperil the county’s booming growth. (Silliest comment of the discussion: Commissioner Joel Arends said that agriculture is—Ki’s words—”the essence of what Lincoln County” is. The only way in which this comment makes even the slimmest sense is that Lincoln County’s spectacular growth has come entirely from the corporate consolidation of agriculture driving kids to leave the farm for good city jobs in Sioux Falls.) The commission couldn’t come to a decision on the CAFO permit and tabled the permit.
Then came an even bigger stink, as Trumpists packed the room to protest county auditor Sheri Lund’s placement of a drop box for absentee ballots outside the courthouse. Ringleader of this protest was Jessica Pollema, who is running against Lund in the Republican primary for auditor and has frequently aired her concerns about”election transparency” at Lincoln County Commission meetings. Pollema is part of South Dakota Canvassing, a group promoting lies about election fraud in 2020. Pollema appears to have fellow Big Liars running for auditor in Minnehaha and Lincoln counties; a page on Minnehaha County auditor candidate Leah Anderson’s campaign website says Pollema, Anderson, and Yankton County auditor candidate Laura Kotalik are “working together to bring the issue of Election Integrity to the forefront,” which is code for, “We are Trumpists working to undo the 2020 election and restore Il Duce Donald to power!”
The “canvassing event” to which the webpage refers is likely another Big Lie session like the one held by quack-math teacher Douglas Frank and hosted by Senator Al Novstrup at his go-kart palace, a conspiracy-theory event that Anderson promoted on her campaign website.
Pollema, Anderson, and Kotalik are all primarying incumbent Republican auditors with no Democratic opposition. Democrats in all three of these counties, you need to immediately recruit qualified candidates to file as independents for these positions and provide a back-up plan to keeping these election stealers from taking power over your elections if it turns out your incumbent auditors can’t stop the madness themselves in the primary. If you can’t find independent candidates, you all need to follow the Woster plan and register Republican by May 23 so you can vote in the primary and keep these election thieves out.
Pollema herself doesn’t have a website yet—at least not one popping up on my early casual Googling—but she did appear three months ago in this hour-long interview with a guy named “RJ” who refers to his YouTubing as “The Rage”—yes, appropriate—to “discuss the serious issues facing South Dakota’s election integrity”…which is another fascinating bit of Trumpist projection: the only serious issue facing South Dakota’s election integrity is the prospect of hyper-partisans like Pollema taking over our election offices and throwing out legitimate ballots that aren’t cast for their preferred candidates. According to the YouTube transcript, Pollema says South Dakota Canvassing is working in coordination with a formal group in Minnesota. She touts Mike Lindell’s cyber-symposium debacle in Sioux Falls as proof that there was election fraud. She tells her video host that her group bought the voter file and found all sorts of cause for alarm, even though they admit the voter file they purchased last summer doesn’t really tell them who voted in November 2020 or whether any fraud actually happened. But as usual, conspiracy theorists aren’t going to let an absence of evidence stop them from preaching their wild gospel of lies to justify their crusades.
How Pollema and her rabble think a drop box for absentee ballots contributes to voter fraud remains a complete mystery, since Pollema and her fellow conspiracy theorists didn’t get to preach much at yesterday’s Lincoln County Commission meeting. Trumpist Commissioner Arends tried to give his fellow radicals a voice by saying the auditor is “usurping power” by placing a ballot drop box outside the courthouse, but Commissioner Tiffani Landeen, a registered Republican as is Arends, told him to stifle his “political partisanship”. Landeen maintained that the commission is responsible for canvassing the election, but the auditor has full authority for operating the election, including determining how, when, and where to collect ballots. Deputy state’s attorney Bill Golden added that ballot drop boxes are the auditor’s property. Landeen then told Trumpist interrupters in the audience that they’d have to leave because the agenda did not set a public hearing for the ballot box discussion, which led to angry profanity:
Residents are angrily storming out of the meeting, after being informed this wasn’t a public hearing and residents couldn’t speak after waiting 4 hours to. pic.twitter.com/wxdzOIngev
— Nicole Ki ʕ·ᴥ·ʔ (@_nicoleki) April 5, 2022
CAFOs stink, but destruction of fair elections stinks worse. Pay attention to Pollema and her co-conspirators, and, voters in Lincoln, Minnehaha, Yankton, and other counties, do everything you can to keep their ilk from polluting our election offices.
Update 2023.05.13: Right before the primary election, Leah Anderson touted her endorsement from election denier Douglas Frank, calling him “the mathematician that solved the algorithms that prove election fraud in every state!”
Ask the “Trumpist Big Liars” if they think that our nation’s loss of the war on Covid-19 might have inspired Putin to attack Ukraine because he saw that the US lacked unity. A unified nation, such as the one that persisted against Germany and Japan during WWII would have shut down Covid. A show of strength and unity against Covid would have saved many lives and indicated to Putin that we can handle any crisis. Instead, we argued about lockdowns, vaccinations, masks, and other trivial matters. We became a nation without focus or unity. (In case they forgot, Trump announced that was at war with Covid-19.) https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/world-is-at-war-with-coronavirus-trump-120031800165_1.html
Ask the Trumpist Big Liars if they think Trump committed voter fraud by voting absentee.
Not on the agenda attempt at disrupting an official proceeding – a local insurrection – with inside help. This script seem familiar?
Speaking of big factory feedlots, this abuse of SCOTUS emergency ruling might very well have implications for all states concerned about untreated wastes getting dumped into navigable waters.
https://www.rawstory.com/john-roberts-joins-dissent-blistering-fellow-right-wing-justices-for-abuse-of-power/
Chief Justice joined the liberal side in gnashing their teeth about abuse oif emergency powers for apparent poltical purposes.
Pffft! Ballot boxes are up all around my city, near police precinct stations and fire stations. There were no cases of voter fraud associated with those ballot dropoffs during the Presidential election. In fact there was more voter fraud committed by Trump supporters voting multiple times than through drop boxes. But, because the Republicans had the vapors, and want to decrease voter participation in elections, they got the Wisconsin Supreme Court to put a hold on the drop boxes until they officially rule whether drop boxes can continue.
I don’t understand what the problem is. People use drop boxes to send their confidential mail, as well as a drop box to have mail delivered. People put their garbage, which includes some of the most personal information their is, out on the street. Ballot drop boxes simply represent government finally at long last beginning to act like a business with customer needs being a factor in how this crucial government service of democracy is provided.
I sent my ballot via the mail, depositing it in the drop box just three blocks from my residence. That is legal. The drop box for ballots is three blocks, also, from my residence. That is also legal, but under challenge by Republicans. It’s just dumb.
One further point. My mailed ballot goes through multiple hands. It goes from Madison to Milwaukee to be sorted then back again to Madison to finally be delivered to the election clerk. I can track my ballot to make sure it gets to the election clerk. This time it took three days. The drop boxes are emptied every day by sworn election officials. The ballots are taken immediately to the election clerk, processed immediately and stored safely in a locked storage facility. That takes one day with a far better system for chain of custody. I feel both systems are safe, but the drop boxes are far safer from a systems standpoint.
Dear Mr. HEIDELBERGER,
To suggest the following,quoted from your article above, is deceitful and unlawful. “Democrats in all three of these counties, you need to immediately recruit qualified candidates to file as independents for these positions and provide a back-up plan to keeping these election stealers from taking power over your elections if it turns out your incumbent auditors can’t stop the madness themselves in the primary. If you can’t find independent candidates, you all need to follow the Woster plan and register Republican by May 23 so you can vote in the primary and keep these election thieves out.”
The drop box controversy is just another “tempest in a tea pot” meant to create chaos at election time. It goes hand in hand with very large pick ups adorned with Trump and MAGA flags peeling out and circling polling places to intimidate voters, a practice which will become common come election time.
Theresa, can you cite what laws Cory is suggesting we break?
It’s best just to go to the meetings and laugh at them. Directly to their faces, they are simply trumpie idiots after all. If they get elected fine, they will screw things up so badly…what can you say? They have no integrity what so ever. Just look at Theresa v. PESCE, a foam at the mouth if there ever was one.
Are those ladies or evil Republican transvestite child molesters? They look like they just got done with a 24-hour bout of sexual perversion involving kids and animals. I think we’ll soon see them at a pizza parlor where they will back at it again with another group of minors. I expect them to soon join the list of Repubicans on this list of sexual criminals:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/26/2048394/-Republican-Sexual-Predators-Abusers-and-Enablers-Pt-26
They want to get rid of electronic voting machines, move completely to paper ballots and hand-counting of said ballots.
Ballot boxes can be stuffed, you know! Lol. Please. There was nothing irregular about the 2020 election in SD, and the numbers back that up.
Watching the (R)s fill the ballot is like watching a corny b-list slasher flick. The ditz runs passed the exit and up the stairs, with the bad guy in taking-his-time pursuit.
We all know what is about to happen. She will stumble and land on her back, screaming. We can’t turn or cover our eyes. We are about to see the killer do what they do in slashers. So bloody.
If only the token skirt ran out the door instead. Not about to watch psycho killers do a hack job to our democracy. I’d rather play the cliche role in an 80’s teen breakdancing flick and pop n’ lock the karens and trump bums outa town.
Me: dang girl. You remind me of a smoke detector.
Karen at that meeting: why, thank you.
Me: yeah, really loud and annoying.
An eager reader digs up Jessica Pollema’s campaign website, which offers a lot of text that exactly matches the text on Leah Anderson’s campaign website. These Big Liars are all reading from the same playbook.
Theresa, as my commenters ask, what is deceitful or unlawful about changing one’s political party registration and participating in a primary election as allowed by the laws of South Dakota? I can guarantee you that if any South Dakota resident registers as a Republican by May 23 and casts a ballot in the June 7 primary, you will have no grounds for challenging that person’s ballot based on that person’s recent change of registration.
I smell in Theresa’s baseless response the standard Republican fear of voters and open elections. Republicans know that the more people who participate in an election, the less chance radical Republicans have of winning. Thus they get mad about secure ballot drop boxes and any other innovation that increases voter participation.
Theresa is making videos claiming drop boxes are not secure. She makes her point standing in front of a ballot drop box in Minnehaha County and claiming that people could stuff the drop box with illegal ballots. Hmmm—Theresa, if I stuff the drop box with illegal ballots, the county auditor will notice those illegal ballots pretty quickly.
I am not going to waste my time and energy to comment or debate your replies.
I suggest everyone: Do your own research and fact-finding, use your eyes (that’s why I made the videoes), and critical thinking skills to decide FACT from fiction.
Check out this movie trailer: https://youtu.be/xTfXCLv6nlM
Yeah yeah yeah, Theresa, typical conspiracy theorist dodge. You don’t have time to engage in an honest discussion of the facts, but you do have time to go to the courthouse at 5 AM to make up baloney about conspiracies in election fraud that isn’t happening, and you have time to listen to liars like Mike Lindell who make lots of money off of you dupes by stalking your fears and anxieties with claims that he never approves. You are an expert at wasting time.
We have done our own research. It’s not that hard. It doesn’t take much time to see that the conspiracy theory you are promoting is complete bunk.
but we will still give you a chance, Theresa, Douglas: how does a locked ballot drop box outside the courthouse increase the chance of election fraud? How is a fake ballot placed in a dropbox any more likely to get counted illegitimately by the auditor then a fake ballot mailed to the auditor or a fake ballots submitted to the auditor through absentee voting? Is your problem the dropbox, or is your problem absentee voting in general?
Mr. H, I think Ms. Pasce’s problem is purely
1. when young people with an open mind vote
2. when people with dark skin vote
3. when people who care about health and science vote
4. when people who care about the planet votes
5. when people who care about the plight of the tired, sick, young, overworked, overtaxed, voiceless, and poor vote
6. when the people enduring the plight described in no. 5 vote
7. when people who have ideas vote
She needs to spread the whole meaning of democracy to her crew of human centipedes: it does not matter if the winner of an election is right or if you do or don’t like them. The winner just needs more votes than anyone else. And regardless, you have to live with the outcome. Try harder next time. Oh, it helps to win when you get more people to like you. That is easy. Just listen to them and help them and they will like you and vote for you. Pretty sure its that simple.
The South Dakota Trumpist contingent screaming about SD voter fraud is not only ridiculous, which is bad enough, in this instance it’s truly insane–Trump won South Dakota by 30%, Republicans control every state office, and the Legislature by a 90%-10% margin–where in God’s name is the fraud? If Democrats (or some other evil-doer bunch) were committing voter fraud, would overwhelming Republican dominance be the result? Theresa V. Pesce, please enlighten me as to what the actual TRUE South Dakota vote totals would have been in the 2020 election had this alleged fraud not taken place? My email address is: Dreysamuelson3@gmail.com I anxiously await your reply!
Cory is correct (as usual) when he writes: “If you can’t find independent candidates, you all need to follow the Woster plan and register Republican by May 23 so you can vote in the primary and keep these election thieves out.” A Minnehaha County resident who wants to file to run as an independent needs to gather 707 valid voter signatures (who can be registered with any party) by April 26th in order to qualify for the general election ballot. If the collective “we” can’t get that done, then serious consideration needs to be given to Cory’s suggestion that non-GOP registered voters in these three targeted counties change their registration to Republican so that we can vote for the honest, non-insane Republican incumbents who currently hold these important auditor positions.
And you can add having to re-register to do this as yet ANOTHER reason to support the elimination of partisan primaries in South Dakota, and to replace them with a top-two, open primary nomination system where EVERYONE–incuding independents–can participate in determining who runs in the general election, not just partisan voters. As a South Dakota taxpayer, I should be able to vote in the primary for any candidate I choose, regardless of party, and right now I can’t. I am a lifelong registered Democrat, but if someone can’t be found in Minnehaha to file as an independent for County Auditor, then I will (temporarily) change my registration to Republican to vote against Leah Anderson and for Bennett Kate. Please consider doing the same if you are similarly registered and live in Minnehaha, Lincoln or Yankton counties!