Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth calls out TenHaken’s Partisan Voter Suppression Bullsh*t

1. Jeff is mad. He once made a video. The first with a red hat. Networks call it quirky, but they should have known it as: “MAD AS HELL.” Jeff is the only Dem at a GOP Ball. Chick-fil-A prefers Iowa law, while the sky is falling. It’s all about integrity like winning an election where voters are facilitated. Shakespeare said: “…a rose is a rose by any other name.” But why are boxes not the same, when used by the USPO or a city on its route, that has been tamed? #MadHatter

2. “Folks, in Sioux Falls, Covid is not what ails us, it’s our government”….

   The difference is, that it’s definitely tasteless like Covid, but the smell is still definitely there.

3. Like in Master and Commander a ship without a rudder, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G95g0vzTAKI

4. Is the letter from Mayor TenHaken to Minnehaha County officials available online? I would like to read it.

5. Moving the goal posts? You are being charitible. It is, plain and simple, backpeddling.

6. “… it was about what they do in Iowa.”
   Seems like a position recommended by the Iowa Democrat Chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party.

7. Haven’t you heard? Merely asking for such a letter is now called collusion…. (…”Your Honor, I would like to file this motion, in order, to obtain collusionary discovery”… )

   ( – and Woodstock adds: “‘collusionary?'”…. “Is that really a word, or merely a collateral reality spurred by secrecy, blowing some smoke, and true collusion itself?”…. )

8. Thank you to the reader who forwarded the Mayor’s letter to me. It’s a lot.

   Paragraph 2: “We simply cannot sacrifice integrity over perceived convenience when protecting the democratic process that makes the United States the envy of the world.”
   There is no evidence drop boxes are a less secure means of returning a ballot than using a US mail facility, or returning a ballot in person. Colorado conducts elections where the majority of voters, around 75%, use drop boxes. Colorado election officials are very aggressive in investigating allegations of abuse and fraud. They have recorded less than 1 incident per million ballots cast.

   And btw, the American election process is hardly the envy of the world, as TenHaken suggests. The United States Department of Justice routinely sends election observers to South Dakota to document voter suppression in our Native American communities. Nationally, voter participation is low, our procedures favor election administrators over voters, and this year – some jurisdictions – Sioux Falls included, will refuse to utilize a safe way for voters to return their ballot, avoid paying postage to do so, or visit a public polling place during a pandemic.

   Paragraph 3: To my knowledge, Mayor TenHaken used Twitter to state his opposition to drop boxes prior to Auditor Litz making any presentation, and in response to Litz appearing before the Commission to tell them it was his intention to present a plan.

   Paragraph 4: After stating SD law is “spelled out clearly” TenHaken misstates the statute regarding returning ballots. The guidance provided to auditors by the Secretary of State, “Process for in-person absentee voting and voting by mail”, dated September 9, 2018, page 1, under the section Notes: “A voter voting by absentee can return the voted ballot back to you however he/she chooses – mail, drop off in-person, have another person drop it off, etc”. A voter choosing to use a drop box – provided by the county – is designating and using the county to return their ballot.

   Worse, TenHaken suggests an “notarized courier” being necessary to hand deliver ballots – conflating and misstating statute referring to the use of an “authorized messenger” for voters. The stature in fact is: “In the event of confinement because of sickness or disability, a qualified voter may apply in writing and obtain an absentee ballot by authorized messenger.” That’s not relevant to the drop box conversation, and if cited intentionally, it’s dishonest.

   Paragraph 5: Iowa! TenHaken says his concerns are the same as the Iowa Secretary of State – “security and integrity”. But, as he told the Des Moines Register, it’s not drop boxes or even drop boxes on public property the SOS is opposed to – it’s the ones at HyVee.

   “Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, said during a taping of Iowa Press on Friday that it was not his office’s intention to ban ballot drop boxes at county buildings. Instead, he said the problem was ballot drop boxes placed around the community.”
   “All the auditors should be able to have a drop mechanism there on their property for returning those ballots. … That will be allowed. The ones in question were the ones that were spread out throughout a community in parking lots, at grocery stores, places like that. There is where the attorney general was involved in stating that those do not meet the present standards of the law,” Pate said on the program. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/03/paul-pate-secretary-of-state-gives-ballot-drop-box-guidance-iowa-county

   Paragraph 6 – 7: TenHaken says he “will do what state and federal law allows” and “ protect the Constitution”. I hope he will. His letter suggests otherwise.

9. W e had slick Mike now we have Slick Ten.

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