Tag: Election Denialism

Government, PoliticsLeave a comment

Hand counting vs. voting machines: Debate rages in South Dakota

Gary Dickson

Most of the county officials who administer elections in South Dakota don’t consider hand counting to be an effective or efficient method of tabulating votes.

That’s the result of a South Dakota News Watch survey that saw input from 49 of the state’s 66 county auditors. Auditors are elected officials who supervise county, state and federal elections as well as maintain financial records and other duties.

The hand count debate comes as South Dakota is viewed as a proving ground by election reformists who claim that recent elections across the county were marred by hacking or fraud, allegations repeatedly rejected by courts of law as well as Democratic and Republican election leaders. Continue reading Hand counting vs. voting machines: Debate rages in South Dakota

Government, Siouxland, South DakotaLeave a comment

Former small-town Minnesota mayor is behind the rise of electoral activism in South Dakota. He’s just getting started.

Gary Dickson

One of the Midwest’s most prominent election deniers stood next to a pinball machine at the Military Heritage Alliance in Sioux Falls in October, outlining how he impacted South Dakota’s 2022 race for secretary of state.

Rick Weible, a 51-year-old computer analyst and Republican Party operative had just given a slideshow to a group called Concerned Citizens of Lincoln County about alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential election and perceived vulnerabilities in South Dakota’s voting systems.

“I was upsetting the apple cart,” Weible said of that election. “I brought my Minnesota experience into South Dakota because I was thinking, ‘If I can’t fix Minnesota, how can I get involved somewhere else to force some of these changes?’” Continue reading Former small-town Minnesota mayor is behind the rise of electoral activism in South Dakota. He’s just getting started.