Scary things pop into my inbox every now and then. Among the scariest is this reminder from the Secretary of State to file my campaign finance report by January 27, 2022.
The typo isn’t mine (though when I type dates for my citations, my left middle finger does keep twitching to repeat the 2 instead of yielding to the index finger’s reach for the 3). And no, my and everyone else’s year-end reports aren’t a whole year overdue. The Secretary of State’s emailer is stuck in the time warp. They have the day right—year-end campaign finance reports for 2022 are due January 27, the last Friday of this month, two Fridays from now. But Monae Johnson‘s office is again demonstrating its inattention to detail by letting this reminder go out twice (they sent a similar reminder on January 3) with the wrong year.
Just as scary as the state election office’s inattention to detail is the signature line of the inattentive sender:
Logan Manhart, breaker of election law, now Federal and State Elections Coordinator, telling me and every other fundraising politician involved in South Dakota campaigns to comply with election law. That frightful fact makes me wish it were still January 2022 so we could redo history and make sure neither of these incompetent menaces makes it int the Secretary of State’s office.
I’ve filed my year-end report. Fellow treasurers, make sure you do, too… not that anyone in Pierre will be paying attention to the details.
If you have any trouble filling out your campaign finance forms, be sure to watch this GoToMeeting video tutorial, helpfully created by the last competent Secretary of State’s office in 2020.
Good grief! I guess I am going to have to remind myself to check my voter registration periodically to make sure my name doesn’t “disappear” from the voter rolls.
I used to feel sorry for Democrats still living in South Dakota but that’s all over now. You’re victims because you make that choice, it’s just that simple.
Isn’t it perjury to sign a candidacy petition as the candidate and not be a legal resident of South Dakota? I don’t expect for one second a Republican of any stature will face perjury charges in South Dakota’s court system. But this clown was a zero when he perjured himself with his District 1 petition, and then became a less-than-zero when it was revealed he was still registered to vote in Wisconsin and not yet legally eligible to run in South Dakota.
Whoopsie. They had to pay Sarah Frankenstein to bail the boy out of that mess.
Elevating a less-than-zero to The Protected Class is destined to be a costly mistake. Just ask Jason Ravnsborg.
Do I have to report my Soros earnings$
Amy B- good idea. You can check your voter status here:
https://vip.sdsos.gov/viplogin.aspx
B.B. Fairbanks & Bossman- I have the petition and am down to come collect your autographs in Hot Springs. Just pick a day with a fair forecast.
I am in Rapid City if anyone else would like to sign, I can meet you. Get ahold of me through my ad on Craigslist here:
https://rapidcity.craigslist.org/wan/d/rapid-city-sd-registered-voters/7578282321.html
I think that residency restriction for candidacy is out of date. A two year restriction was reasonable when legislative sessions came around every other year, as it did until about the 1970s. What that restriction allowed was a person to go through a legislative session as a citizen of the state before becoming a candidate for that office. A person could learn about the state, the issues, the procedures through a session before being placed in office. I think it was also protection against potential corrupt practices from out-of-state interests (say, the grain cartels in Minnesota or the railroads), who might slot their employees into the power structure and overwhelm local farmers or business interests.
I think a one year residency for modern times is more appropriate. Legislative sessions occur annually now, and the corruption really comes from inside the state as much as from out-of-state economic and political/ideological interests.
Competency is a foreign concept.
Well…it is South Dakota, you know. We have a high tolerance for inattention to detail, like what year it is. We are all just soldiering through the winter, after all. It’s cold, the wind is blowing, and our bodies ache from digging out. We can’t be expected to dot every i and cross every t.
Donald, I don’t mind reforming the residency requirement. I hope the SOS proposes a bill on that topic and sends Manhart to testify on it.
Mr. H it will be wonderful if this Mr. Manhart fellow is sent to testify by Ms. Monae,, and then you step up to debate him down. He is, no doubt, a clown.
Mr. Blundt- don’t forget to dot those lowercase j’s too. Even the best editors miss that one;)