Kindgo
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Barnett: Flandreau woman tried to destroy originals
Investigators have recovered charred pieces of absentee ballot applications from a Flandreau woman suspected of forging voters' names on such forms.
Attorney General Mark Barnett said Becky Red Earth-Villeda apparently tried to burn the original applications but then decided to retrieve them.
Investigators suspect Red Earth-Villeda tried to copy information including signatures onto new applications.
"It gets stranger every day," Barnett said. "She claims they are the legitimate signatures (on the charred paper).
The Flandreau woman told Barnett that she copied the names of the applicants from the real documents in order to comply with instructions from Democratic Party officials. Barnett said the woman was told that she could not turn in ballot applications that had been signed but not filled out correctly.
"Many hundreds of those absentee ballot applications that were turned in by her, in fact were her signature, attempting to trace or duplicate the signature on the original form, which was rejected by the party," he said.
Red-Earth-Villeda was hired as an independent contractor by the state Democratic Party. She was fired after a county auditor alerted party officials that forged signatures were showing up on applications for absentee ballots.
Barnett said last week that authorities had found 15 absentee ballot applications with apparently forged signatures. Those documents were discovered during an investigation of voter irregularities in 25 counties.
Despite the suspicions of authorities, only those 15 have been verified by contacting the person whose name is on the application, Barnett said.
Democratic officials have cooperated with the investigation, Barnett said.
The probe has been laborious because of the sheer volume of election documents in question, he said. Each person whose name is on the application must be contacted by investigators to verify whether it is their signature on the form.
"I have almost 30 agents on this full time, spread out all over South Dakota, going as fast as we can go. We're doing everything we can to sort it out and advise the county auditors," Barnett said. "We're going to be sorting this out for a long time."
No absentee ballots tied to the questionable ballot application forms have been discovered, he stressed.
Investigators interrogated Red Earth-Villeda for several hours on Wednesday. She also released a written statement admitting that she had duplicated signatures but denying wrongdoing.
Kea Warne, state election supervisor, said county auditors are being advised to set aside any absentee ballots that look suspicious.
"If the signatures on the envelopes containing absentee ballots don't match up with the signatures on the applications for those ballots, we're telling auditors to set the ballots aside," she said.
Joyce Hazeltine, secretary of state, said she thinks the election will go smoothly and there will be no problems if questionable absentee ballots are rejected.
"If there's any question, I'm not taking any chances on having a contested election. Let's just not use them," she said.
If absentee ballots are set aside, they would only be considered if any races are within vote margins that allow for recount requests, Warne said.
"The recount board would have the authority to review those uncounted ballots," she said.
Red Earth-Villeda worked in several counties that encompass or border Indian reservations, he said.
"In Buffalo County alone, we probably have 80 or 100 absentee ballot applications that she signed instead of the voter," Barnett said, adding that forgery charges likely would be filed soon in Minnehaha County because that's where the election forms were turned over to the Democratic Party.
http://www.argusleader.com/news/Fridayarticle2.shtml
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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