Steve Barnett is so mad that his party didn’t renominate him for another four years as Secretary of State that he’s quitting early, allowing election-saboteuse Monae Johnson to ascend to the post she won in the election a whole month early:
Governor Kristi Noem appointed Monae Johnson as Secretary of State, effective Monday, December 5, 2022. The current Secretary of State, Steve Barnett, is resigning from the role to pursue employment in the private sector [Office of the Governor, press release, 2022.12.02].
Evidently Barnett needs to abandon his elected post early so he can spend December boning up on all the policies the rural electric coops need him to lobby for during the 2023 Session. Monae Johnson thus gets an extra month to start riffling through the files and figuring out ways to not count your votes (and petition signatures?) during the next election.
Recall former Secretary of State Shantel Krebs revealed that at least half a million documents were deleted from her office’s servers during Pat Powers’ brief stint as a paid hacker for Jason Gant and the South Dakota Republican Party. Mrs. Johnson will make those actions look like man child’s play.
Perhaps the first question Johnson should answer is does she support trump’s call to suspend the Constitution?
Every republican should be called on the carpet to answer that question.
Begin at the 6 minute point, Rep Dave Joyce is asked, repeatedly, for his reaction to trump’s whining to suspend the Constitution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9aBqdyjWg8 Watch Rep Joyce weasel and squirm. Politicians like the spineless Joyce would support the bier hall putsch.
Silence is acquiescence.
Trump walks in the same camp as Benedict Arnold and Jefferson Davis. Republicans who refuse to understand are reject trumpism are unworthy of public service.
As a candidate I worked with Mr Barnett and his office.
Competent, professional and with integrity.
He tried to expand and improve procedures and paid the price for it here in Medieval Land.
It would be wise for Democrats to take stock of failings like this one. Monae Johnson is clearly unqualified and intellectually incapable of serving as our Secretary of State and maintaining loyalty to her oath of office.
How did a dupe like this get put in charge of elections for all of South Dakota? She lined up the votes needed among political convention delegates to get the Republican nomination. It was the only success in a cabal to replace qualified and capable Republican candidates for statewide office that nearly precluded the nominations of Lt. Governor Larry Rhoden and former Attorney General Marty Jackley.
But what about the voters in a statewide election in South Dakota? What about that safety net?
All you need is an R behind your name, and the election is over at the close of the SDGOP State Convention. And that guarantees someone admittedly dedicated to anti-democracy and anti-American values gets into office to take a wrecking bar to a state election system already hog-tied to guarantee one-party rule with Republican control of redistricting and generations of brainwashing to vote for the R and not the person seeking office.
The current governor enjoys labeling Democrats as commies or too extreme for South Dakota. Monae Johnson is a perfect example of too extreme because of her negative and falsified agenda. Election denier statewide candidates like Monae Johnson lost in nearly every election across the nation because their agenda horrified Americans, even many of whom voted for Trump in 2020. Yet Kristi Noem doesn’t think twice about swearing Johnson into office.
Yes, the 2022 election is over. But there are more elections coming up and following the exploits of lunatics of Monae’s ilk can be useful for Democrats in the legislature and future ballot issues.
96Tears asks, “How did a dupe like this get put in charge of elections for all of South Dakota?”
Don’t blame anyone but the voters. The dupes elected her, just like they elected Gant. In America, the voters get what they deserve, and South Dakota deserves bad leaders.
I am worried not only about the elections that will be screwed by Mrs. Johnson, but also the various other functions of the office. As pointed out by Mr. kurtz about the deletion of MILLIONS of official documents under the previous putzy Pitty Pat P. I, for example, have a legal contractual document to be executed in a foreign nation currently sitting at the SOS’s office awaiting an apostille to make it valid and enforceable in that nation. Does Mrs. Johnson even know what an apostille is? Or is it just some “junk” that she will do away with as “not known”? It would not be the first time I have had legal documents “lost in Pierre”, to the point that i now always – always, always send things to that black hole in the center of the state via registered mail requiring a signature and receipt from the recipient(s).
That Lee Schoenbeck allowed this to happen is a head scratcher. Is dominionism his ultimate end game here?
The only reason that makes any sense is that Lee is so in the pockets of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops he’s willing to disenfranchise every tribal member living on the rez as to slap down anyone contemplating lawsuits against his clients.
Monae will count the votes just fine. One….two….three……four…….five…….six. it will be a slow process. Then repeat.
You get who you vote for.
Now if the State requires all ballots to be hand counted that the State should be required to pay for the Cost !
This could be the first time we have three one term SOSs in a row. Waiting to see.