Hopefully, we'll have a good show for you here tonight.
And just when you thought the elections were over, they're not.
And tonight I'll have a special guest on from the Corn Palace in South Dakota, out in Mitchell at Davidson County.
Sonia will be joining us.
But first, let's get to the late-breaking news that is happening here in the United States regarding elections and some of the swamp creatures out there.
The first up is it's absolutely amazing that even though the elections in essence have been called, we've got the Democrat commissioners in Bucks County bragging about defying the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling, and they are continuing to count illegal ballots.
And it's just absolutely disgusting to see what they are doing and how they're not following their own laws.
Then in other news that affects the media world, for those of you that haven't kind of kept up, InfoWars, a judge overseeing the Infowars case orders a hearing into how the onion won the auction.
So the Onion purchase InfoWars in a bankruptcy auction on Thursday with plans to turn it into a satire website.
But the judge overseeing the case has ordered a hearing into how that happened.
Then, of course, you know, the swamp creatures themselves in their news.
Of course, Rhino John Bolton accuses Tulsi Gabbard of pushing Russian propaganda and calls Gates the worst nomination in history.
Actually, sir, you were.
And so he's even calling for a full-field FBI investigations into the Trump nominees.
That's actually disgusting.
This guy wanted to push us into so many wars.
And of course, he's shopping himself out there because Trump didn't appoint him.
And of course, why would we want him?
He's too dangerous for America.
Then, you know, kind of the flashback, of course, Nancy Pelosi has just filed for reelection for 2026.
So we can see that the Democrats are already trying to figure out a way to handcuff the Trump administration in the midterms.
And so this will be led by Nancy Pelosi.
And so this is going to be absolutely important that the Republicans stay together, do a good job, because what can easily happen is that if the Republicans don't keep their promises, you're going to lose Republican votes in the midterms.
And so this is the cautionary tale.
But one of the rays of hope that we've all been waiting for is basically let's make America healthy again.
And so President Trump has tapped RFK Jr. for Health and Human Services Secretary.
And so I think this is actually a good move that keeps one of the promises and agreements between Trump and RFK.
And there's a lot that I disagree with RFK on.
But when it comes to natural foods, the labeling, making sure we don't have pesticides in our food, that we don't have crazy stuff with our vaccines, I think it's actually important that we actually look at this and support this nomination and make sure that it happens.
We're already seeing hints out there and kind of recrimination against Matthew Gates that has happened already with the releasing of this report that originally Garland did not want out there.
And so for whatever reason, they've decided to go after Matt Gates because I guess he's too forceful in going after the FBI and the Department of Justice.
And so what makes this really interesting is to kind of see the swamp creatures out there attacking all of the things that Trump is already doing.
But John Thune in his wisdom, the senator from South Dakota, has already hinted, hey, look, there may be some recess appointments.
So he's already opened the door to close the door on trying to have hearings on some of the nominees.
So that way, during the recess, Trump can then appoint the people that would be potentially more controversial.
So look for that type of political theater to happen in our U.S. Congress and Senate, and especially in the presidency.
And so what I do want to kind of bring back towards is we thought these elections were done.
Now we're actually seeing cases filed across the United States to challenge some of these elections.
There are some Democrats filing, there are Republicans filing, and there are rule of law issues that are still out there that are contesting these elections.
We saw the video last night of the Wisconsin candidate running for Senate where he explicitly describes all of the failures in Wisconsin and the law violations regarding his race.
And I'm so glad that he waited until he actually had the evidence so that he could basically share that with all of us.
Now we hear in Minnesota all of the law violations that are happening there regarding some of the Minnesota House races for its state legislature.
And stay tuned for that.
I believe next week we'll have some additional guests regarding that.
But now I'd like to turn to a good friend of mine, Sonia, from South Dakota.
And there's a lot to kind of unpack here.
And what I love about South Dakota is that, yeah, we might be a small state, but all the things that happen across the United States happen here in a red state.
Sonia, welcome to the Lindell Show.
Thanks so much, Rick.
I appreciate you inviting me.
I'm excited to discuss with you tonight what's going on in South Dakota and Davidson County specifically.
Yeah, so first up, you kind of told me a little bit of a story about your auditor.
There's kind of been a little bit of a carousel rotation of your auditor.
You originally had one that was elected, then appointed, and then now you're on, what, your third auditor within a year.
Is that correct?
Well, Susan Kepke was with as the Davidson County Auditor for over 20 years, and she resigned effective August 16th of this year.
And then at that point, they had to appoint an interim auditor, which was Kathy Wingert.
She's extremely easy to work with.
She's actually the HR director for Davidson County.
And So then at that point, there was a deputy auditor that actually wanted the auditor's position, but the county commissioners decided they wanted to put forth an ordinance to fuse the Davidson County auditor and the treasurer positions into one.
I guess there really wasn't a good excuse or information data given for why they wanted to do that.
One of the comments was they want to be able to have more control over that position.
In other words, if there's a problem with the employee, that see at this point, I should back up here, that position now would not be elected because the ordinance would pass.
But then in the future election, when that position does come up, which would be the finance officer, then you would elect that person.
However, the deputy auditor that had been there for six and a half years, he was the one that ran the tabulator machine.
He was vying for that position, obviously.
And since they were going to combine the two offices, he'd be out of a job, right?
So he resigned also.
So then they had to hire a bunch of deputy auditors.
So there's been a lot of turnover in that office for the last year.
Kathy Wingert, who's taken over the interim auditor position, I guess auditor now at this point, is doing a really good job, but she's still doing her HR job as well.
So that's kind of what's going on.
We just had our post-election audit today.
And so, well, I guess I should go on about what happened with the ordinance then.
So they passed the first reading.
Yep.
And then they had a second reading.
And even through all of that, they never gave any specific numbers as to how are we going to save money, how are we going to put these two together.
And then they had a big public hearing and they referenced Brookings County audit, this big audit here.
And but they didn't bring forth anything from the audit.
So Steve Sivson, a good friend of mine, retired accountant, he went and dug in to see, okay, what's the deal about this Brookings audit?
Because there's literally only four counties out of the 66 in South Dakota that have this combined position of the auditor and the treasurer.
And so what happened then is Steve found out that in that Brookings audit, they had had a combined auditor-treasurer position.
They had someone change that came in.
And that audit for the 20 through the 2020 showed over 50 significant errors and nearly a half a million dollars was over taxed because they continued with the tax past the time.
And unfortunately, it was obvious that the county commissioners had not looked at the audit.
They just said they talked to people there that said everything was going fine.
And one thing to point out is the Davison County audit did not have any significant errors.
So why are we trying to fix a system that's not broke?
So that's kind of where we're at.
I think you're absolutely right because you're kind of hitting it where the finance department is one division, and then you have the auditors is a different division.
And so when we think about the election season starting, really for a general election, a lot of the activities start in August with ballot preparation.
Then in September, your Yokova and absentee ballot work, as well as voter registrations.
And at the same time, your treasurer's position is already working on a new budget and working with all the department heads.
And so, to have one person get divided in so many different ways is just ripe for errors and mistakes and things to be missed.
Because when I talk to so many auditors during this election cycle, it's incredible what they have to deal with.
You know, even just from an auditor position like in Minnehaha County, all of the requests that are coming in for non-election, then the height of the election, plus everything through where you have the secondary reading of the budget proposal for the finals in November, December.
And here you have auditors that are finishing up their election, doing post-election audits, doing their canvassing report.
This is such a bad idea.
And thank you for pointing out the Brookings audit where there were so many errors.
And unfortunately, Brookings is my home county here in South Dakota.
And so it's like when you think something is not related, it is related.
And there's always these connecting pieces across the country, even in our state here, where you're halfway into the state and I'm over on the eastern edge.
And so, you know, not to be corny, but what do I expect from the corn palace of the country, right?
You know, so of course, you know, you would find this out.
But it's other things is a few months ago, I came out and did a hand count demo in your county.
I think you had a couple of elected officials that were there and a lot of activists were there participating.
And apparently, your current auditor actually has looked at this.
And what were her thoughts that she shared with you regarding the hand count?
You mean Susan Kepke or the one currently?
Yeah.
Either one.
Okay.
So there's a group of us patriots that have been coming to the county commissioner's meeting and educating on a vast number of issues.
And to be quite honest, I mean, I'd say about three years ago, maybe probably three years ago, I really didn't think election integrity was an issue until I started listening to South Dakota canvassing group and really looking at the data that you guys had collected.
I mean, canvassing is a big job.
And when we delve into that, we started doing some FOIA requests to get some information about the cast vote records because that whole issue, you know, the cast vote records didn't exist.
And then they did exist and then they didn't exist and then they existed, but yet we can't have a look at them.
So that was a whole nother issue with the cast vote records because in Davison County, we're one of four counties in the state that have the election software to decode, as they would say, the election information into more of a readable format.
And of course, Rick, you know more about that than I do.
But, you know, here's another thing.
It's the wasting and the waste of money here in our county when we're spending money on something that we're not even using.
And that was all under, now, I don't know exactly the date that that was purchased, but during that whole 20 years, we've been paying for that and there hasn't been upgrades necessarily to everything.
And so we got a lot of pushback when we would just come and give information out.
We're having this hand count demo.
This is how you can do it, giving out handouts.
We were met with a lot of resistance.
And even there were times, well, she was quoted in the paper of saying that she felt threatened by the election issues.
I don't know if she was directing that towards us, but we obviously never threatened her.
We always came to the meetings very professional and always had information and documentation to back up anything that we were discussing.
And so that was interesting.
But, you know, go full circle here with that is now we do this post-election audit.
And I get a call from the, I can't, I shouldn't say interim audit anymore because she is the auditor right now.
And Kathy is amazing.
She called me and asked me, you know, said that she had heard that I knew, you know, some information about this because I had mentioned at one of the commissioners' meeting when she was then there taking over the auditor's position that we had been a part of the hand count demo.
We had one here.
We'd been trained by you, Rick.
And she called me up and asked me if I would help.
And then I directed her to the uscase.org and all that information, the videos that you had put together.
And she was super thankful about that.
And so we went and had the post-election audit today of one of our precincts.
And we went through the presidential election and then Amendment H.
We had 433 ballots and we did set it up the way that you have trained with the five people, two people tallying, two people, you know, stating it and the one supervisor.
We did not use the tally sheets that you had.
She wasn't sure that they were approved by the Secretary of State's office, although I know the Secretary of State's office is probably aware of these since this information has been shared from you and others to them.
And so she was extremely excited about presenting that information to the Secretary of State's office and being able to use those different tally sheets that are actually a lot easier.
And one thing we did find out was the Secretary of State from South Dakota, their tally sheet, you know, you just do the slash marks, but there was no spot to put undervoted and overvoted.
So we had to write that in at the bottom.
Same with the reporting sheet that we have to turn in that we all have to sign, all of us that were part of the post-election audit.
There was no spot there also for the undervoted and overvoted.
And of course, you need that in the tally of your votes for the ballots.
So that was put in at the bottom.
But she was extremely helpful, very easy to work with.
It would be a joy to continue to work with her, but obviously she can't do two positions.
But yeah.
And, you know, I should go back to the whole ordinance thing.
I did not finish with that.
If you want me to expand on that a little bit about what happened.
Yeah, so first I just want to comment your auditor and say, what a gem.
You know, so this is a type of professionalism you are so blessed to have.
And so hopefully other clerks and auditors, election officials will kind of look at this as a model like the Leah Andersons and your current auditor where they're willing to reach out to the activists to say, hey, maybe some you have some value here that you can kind of help us because you're absolutely right.
Us as activists, we're there to support our election officials to make sure that we have proper oversight, but to also make sure that it is easier for them and that we do want to help them that if the machines don't work or if there's complications,
we want to be at their side to go and talk to the legislature to make sure that we can clean this up because as election judges, as poll watchers, as volunteers, we need to step up our game to make sure that we're supporting them in the legislative process and at the state board of elections to make the rules better so that they're not as punitive.
And so when you have somebody that's taking a fresh look at it to kind of compare the two tally sheets, which one is better and which one is easier.
And just as you pointed out so thoughtfully, that the current one in South Dakota is missing over votes and under votes, and how that is so critical to be able to do a true post-election audit or even a hand count.
That is such valuable information.
And so I'm so glad that you shared that here tonight, but also that your auditor is aware of it.
And so I want to challenge the South Dakota Auditors Association.
What legislation are you going to bring forward?
based upon the experience of 2024 to help improve our elections from every step of the way.
We as activists, we're going to be bringing legislation.
I just met with Jessica Palmea earlier this afternoon.
We sat down and kind of itemized 21 bills that we want to work on.
We completed six of them today.
And we're going to, over the next couple of weeks, get those released out so that we can have public comment and make adjustments where needed.
And hopefully the public will join us to create additional legislation.
But this was just a starting point.
And then we'll transition to kind of make kind of a generic one for other states to basically kind of look at and potentially model.
And we're looking at other states.
It takes such a long process to kind of look at how do we make these improvements.
And so what you are bringing to the table, Sonia, is that real world experience of that great communication with your auditor to kind of understand what are their sensitive points, where are they thinking how they can improve it?
And where, and especially with a nice person like this that comes from an HR background that's now looking at this a little different, she's got kind of rules in place.
And it's nice to have these different perspectives come in and look at our elections so that we can have a better understanding.
So, but let's take a look at this ordinance of, so they're trying to change the rules.
And it sounds like kind of as I let up, the election's not over.
So you have a potential election coming up on December 3rd?
Yes, that's correct, Rick.
So when Steve had dug in and found the Brookings audit, you know, he's a numbers guy, he said, well, we've got to get a petition out.
So we decided to get a petition out to get the signatures needed to get it on a special election ballot to let the people decide, do we want to combine the Davidson County Auditor and Treasurer positions into one?
Because their side, you know, one of the commissioners was saying, well, we want to be able to hire and fire, even though this is going to be down to one position versus two.
The other commissioners, one of the main ones, was saying that we're going to be, you know, saving so much money, but there was no analysis at all.
So we, the people here, decided we're going to get the signatures.
We needed somewhere a little bit over 600, and we had over 800 that we obtained.
So now it will be in a special election on December 3rd.
And the people will get to decide whether they want to have the combining of the two offices.
And, you know, for witnessing what Kathy did with the election, too, because we organized also poll watchers and poll workers.
And I was a poll watcher, and so was Steve.
And we went to the courthouse afterwards.
She great communication with her.
She was wonderful the day of and at the courthouse.
You know, we've been there the last three years or the last three elections.
It's the fourth one.
So we kind of know what they're doing.
And they were, she was absolutely wonderful about it.
And so I give her kudos for, you know, having two positions that she's trying to do full time.
And in addition to that, so right now we have the early voting, absentee voting, and that was actually going on this on the same time at the overlap with the presidential.
So you can imagine, I mean, there were lines there for some people.
So we're having a special election on December 3rd.
And we hope that the people are going to speak that, no, we don't want this.
There's not enough good information.
There's no reason to change something that's not broke.
So that's where we're at.
So we're excited, you know, a lot of work.
So, in your view, is it a valid reason to try and cost save on elections and the clerk's office, I mean, or the treasurer's office?
I mean, don't we value accuracy over cost savings?
Exactly.
And the other thing is, you know, that's just two different jobs.
You know, you need to have that auditor who's overseeing the treasurer's office also.
The treasurer doesn't really know all of the election process.
Now, thankfully, you know, the way everything went with this election, it did go well.
And I credit her and all the other people that helped out.
There were some commissioners that helped also.
Mike Blollett, he helped being the election coordinator the day of there at the site.
He did a fabulous job helping out with people.
And if he didn't know the answers, he called Kathy at the auditor's office.
So, I mean, that was very refreshing to have that.
So, yeah, so we'll have to see what happens with this election coming up.
But in addition to that, there's still issues for Davison County.
I mean, why are we spending money on this election?
Where?
And I actually got help from Jessica.
We did a Freedom of Information Act request, found out how much they're spending on their tabulator machines over the last years.
And I did a PowerPoint presentation showing the waste and spending that they are using for those machines.
And that didn't even include how much they pay for poll workers.
But pretty much you could save around 85% if you did all hand counting at the precinct.
And that, of course, didn't include the poll workers, but it wouldn't include, you know, so still we're saving 85%, about 85%.
And we base that on how much it would cost per ballot, looking back at the previous elections and stuff.
And so I don't see why they wouldn't go to that.
But we had one commissioner that asked, well, why hasn't the Secretary of State's office given us that information?
And I said, well, it's probably because, you know, they want the tabulator machine.
So, I mean, they wouldn't give you that information.
I mean, it wasn't like easy information to get.
I mean, I had to pay for the documents that they made copies of.
And then Jessica helped extrapolate that, you know, the numbers gal she is.
And then I did the PowerPoint to figure out the exact amount per ballot.
And so, you know, what's funny about that statement is in South Dakota law, it is the county commissioners that decide whether or not to use the tabulators or to go hand counting.
So actually, the question should be reversed back to them because they have the ultimate knowledge as to what it costs for their elections.
The Secretary of State does not have that information.
It is their budget.
It is their decision.
It is their finances.
And so the Secretary of State has no responsibility to cost estimate to do the work on behalf of the commissioners.
It is their responsibility and they have the oversight of it.
The only thing that the Secretary of State does in all of these states is to provide a menu option to evaluate the vendors to determine whether or not they would comply with the law.
And then basically say, here is a list of vendors that we approve of.
And it is up to the and then they're also the clearinghouse for Help America vote funds from the federal government to basically say, if you want to buy the equipment, here is a matching grant if you want to transition to it.
And then it is ultimately still up to the counties to make the determination if it's a right fit.
And so shame on them for not understanding it.
And so this is a warning sign for all of the activists out there as you talk with your county commissioners, understanding your state law and where the authority matrix comes in to play is so important because it could be at a city level where that decision is made, the county, and most of those election decisions on hand counting as well as whether or not to use the machines is at that local level within each of the states.
And so be careful of those types of excuses.
Understanding your state laws before they come in and kind of put that garbage towards us constituents is so empowering.
And so this is why I'm so proud of you in understanding a lot of this stuff and being able to kind of push back on them so gracefully to kind of say, hey, look, that's not quite right.
And then presenting the information for them, which is ridiculous, that why is it that a county commissioner can get the information for free, but they punish us and make us pay for the data?
Well, exactly.
And I mean, I do have to give that commissioner, he's the same one that wants this ordinance.
He was the only commissioner that showed up for the hand count demo.
I mean, and he did see how easy it can be done.
And so, but, but it's not going to change.
I don't think because the others don't really understand it.
I've tried to, you know, it's really hard to do a presentation on hand counting.
You know, they need to do it and, you know, have the time to sit down and do it.
But I would love to go to hand counting in the precinct.
I think we would save hundreds of thousands of dollars.
People have no idea how much money is being spent.
Right.
You know, and then we spent all this money on this election where, and we have the laptop, but we don't use it, you know, and so it's probably not up to date with its virus protection.
And so there's all kinds of issues that start bubbling up.
Yeah, it's five years out of date.
Don't worry about it.
It's nothing to see there.
Nothing to see there.
So as long as they didn't use it, she kept the election secure.
That's really tough to see.
So when we come back from the commercial break, let's talk about some of the great things that happened statewide in South Dakota that I think really shocked the country and even some of us as activists.
And so South Dakota is kind of the ray of sunshine.
And of course, we're in the news a lot lately with Governor Noam taking a position in the Trump administration and then John Thune taking the helm of the U.S. Senate and then us as activists taking kind of the helm between Jessica, I, and you guys, and all the great volunteers throughout South Dakota that are out there kind of showing the way that, yeah, we can flip our house races in the primary, the general election, and we have a voice.
And so don't be discouraged when we want to encourage people to vote because it does matter.
And it really mattered in South Dakota.
So after the break, we'll kind of dive into some of the initiatives in South Dakota and kind of do a little bit of a review.
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Hey, welcome back.
Rick Vibel subbing in for Mike Lindell tonight.
And I also want to remind everyone, so we kind of trolled a little bit in South Dakota where we suggested that myself and Leah Anderson, who is the Minnehaha County auditor, be nominated and brought forth onto the State Board of Elections of South Dakota.
And already we're getting the leader of the Senate basically saying that apparently there's no way I'm going to be appointed because I'm too extreme.
So I just want to point out to everyone that the only thing I'm asking the government to do is to follow their own laws and rules.
And I've been out there advocating for better transparency, better bipartisan oversight of our elections in South Dakota.
And somehow I'm the extremist.
Well, I want to tell you, Senator, right here, actually, you're the extremist, and you are absolutely ignorant of the law violations that we have seen across South Dakota.
And the fact that I'm willing to serve, as I posted on Acts, the State Board of Elections to help people from the inside actually understand what's going on.
Because one of your own members of the State Board of Elections up in McPherson County, Lindsay Howard, the auditor representative there, violated state law and violated the rules of what she was there to vote on, had no objections and voted for it, and then turns around and violates it.
So the very specific violation, and even the county attorney disagrees with my assessment.
But when I presented them the evidence and mailed it up there, emailed it, they went ahead and redid the logic test.
Now, I ask, do you believe auditors and attorneys retest just to appease us to make it good?
Or do you think that they actually did agree with me that they violated the law and the rules and decided they better cover their own sides because they knew they were in the wrong but couldn't admit it?
And this is why in the letter I asked for her resignation because she was so affront on it.
Now, I have asked and left a voicemail with the county attorney last week to sit down and meet with him and Lindley Howard to go over his assertions that he's made publicly saying that I am in the wrong.
And I'm willing to go up there either privately or publicly and review the original test acts and the new test acts along with the laws side by side to see if they are in compliance.
If I'm wrong, I'll admit it here.
If I'm right, they need to admit it.
And I'm willing to even show you those original logic and accuracy test results and the reports that they gave us that led me to that letter that I wrote up there and gave to the activists to present to the commissioners and Lindley Howard to request the redo.
It is so important that people understand this.
And this recklessness of the state senator to say that I'm too extreme is absolutely disgusting.
I would love to invite you on this show and you can itemize where I'm extreme.
Now, some of my language may be colorful, but the reality is our importance, the importance of our elections are top notch.
Why?
Because as I've stated before, I believe the conduct of our elections is the gateway to understand how the rest of your government is going to operate.
If your elections are corrupted, your government is corrupted.
If your elections are not transparent, the rest of your government will not be transparent.
If you don't audit your elections, you probably don't faithfully audit your books.
If you are using bad people and you don't have transparency and the correct oversight, of course, your government is going to run amok.
And I've been saying this for years.
And so this is why I'm so proud to have patriots like Sonia out there who are understanding this, who are at the front lines of the battle to understand how they try to manipulate our government by changing the rules midstream, by combining positions, keeping people out, not holding special elections.
All of this garbage has to stop.
And in South Dakota, and Sonia, you've heard me say this in front of legislature.
You've heard me say this in front of the activists.
We either believe in that motto, under God, the people rule, or we might as well just go ahead and take that motto and throw it in the trash.
I'm not willing to do that yet.
And this is why I'm so proud people like Sonia, Jessica, all of the great people out there, Travis Ismay, are out there actually doing good work.
And I'm so proud of South Dakotans.
When we looked at the avalanche of initiatives that came out in South Dakota, the first one was interesting.
It came from the governor's office, and people could have taken it either way.
I get it.
And I was there in the legislature listening to one of the attorneys from the governor's office bring this amendment in for the legislature to place on the ballot.
It's the Constitutional Amendment E, an amendment to the South Dakota Constitution updating gender references for certain office holders and persons.
I wasn't against it.
I understand where they're coming from.
Christopher, sorry, Christy Noam is the first female governor elected in South Dakota, and she was reelected.
And so she was looking at trying to remove the terms he and then put in the actual office holders.
I'll just kind of tell you that I kind of tipped my hand there and said, and I spoke with the lady afterwards and I said, you know, I really like this because what's interesting is that when you actually designate the office holder by title in some of these areas, you've created a new legal nexus that actually makes it easier for me to hold them accountable.
So I really want this to pass.
And she looked at me and her face went white and she's just like, I never looked at it that way.
And I'm like, don't worry.
I think most of the folks in South Dakota are going to vote against this just because not that they're sexist, it's just that they're traditionalists and they look at the Constitution and they say, we're not changing it.
We don't care what it is.
It's not important.
This amendment isn't important.
We all understand kind of the tradition behind it.
It's not sexist, but the tradition, there's kind of a unique Norman Rockwell piece to it so that we can still have honest discussions of it.
And they weren't wrong in their presentation saying, look, we've had women's suffrage for over 100 years, and it's time to recognize and update and understand that the Constitution of South Dakota is a living document.
They're not wrong in that argument.
And so, but what I was surprised is the divide in South Dakota, that it was 57% that voted no and only 43% that voted yes.
So that was kind of a juggernaut.
Do you take offense to the voters voting this one down, or what are your thoughts on this one?
You know, I was kind of like the voters.
I thought, you know, just don't change the Constitution.
And so I really thought it was kind of a waste of time personally.
So the others, on the other hand, were not a waste of time.
And I was active in several of those.
They weren't the other one.
Yeah, the other one that was interesting for South Dakota that was a little bit unique.
Just a couple of years ago, South Dakota started kind of taking expansion for Medicaid benefits.
And so this year, there was a constitutional amendment.
I think it was brought on by the legislature as well.
An amendment to the South Dakota Constitution authorizing the state to impose a work requirement on individuals eligible for expanded Medicaid benefits.
I thought that one was really interesting.
And I wasn't really sure how that one would go, but I kind of had an inkling that because we're a more conservative state, that it would be kind of like, oh, of course we would require that.
If you have the ability to work, you should work or you shouldn't get a freeload.
And especially when you have a governor recruiting people across the country to say, look, if you want to build a career and you want to, South Dakota is hiring and all of this stuff.
So it made sense that we would attract that type of a vote.
And so that was a 56 to 44% vote.
So a little narrower than the one previous.
But overwhelmingly, South Dakota said, yeah, you're working.
Then the one that kind of had my heart fluttering, and especially a lot of us that are activists that are conservative, was Constitutional Amendment G. Here we are entering into the fray of one of the targeted states that they went after, 10 of them, regarding kind of extreme abortion bills.
And so this was an initiated amendment establishing a right to abortion in the state constitution.
So and I know people are going to disagree with me, but this was, in my view, because of how extreme it was all the way up until delivery, in my view, is what they were looking at, is that this was basically the murder bill allowed people to have a constitutional right to murder the unborn.
And I just think that's just an assault on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And when a government doesn't care about life, I can't trust them and I can't trust politicians that are willing to murder babies.
I mean, that's just me.
And that one actually had a wider margin.
That one actually shocked me that it was 59% that voted no to 41% that voted yes.
And so I'm so proud of the state, my fellow South Dakotans that looked at this and said, no way, we are not going down this road.
And Sonia, were you involved in this one with the Right to Life Defense Fund?
Yes.
I was the county captain, and then I'm the local Mitchell Right to Life president.
And yes, so we were very active.
We went door to door.
Got a bunch of churches mobilized, a lot of people mobilized.
There was just a huge concerted effort.
And, you know, when you talk to South Dakotans and you go door to door and you're talking to your friends and your neighbors and your family, and you explain the language in the amendment, it was so vague that it allowed for this extremeness to allow for abortion up to birth and then to take away health protections for women up to the second trimester.
So that meant that the state could not regulate the abortion facility or the abortionist.
So what does that equate to?
That equates to the normal protections that women and men and everyone have when they go to a clinic or a hospital.
Those go away up to the second trimester.
Any regulations on the person who's going to be giving the abortion?
Are they a doctor?
Are they not?
I mean, there was going to be no regulation up to the second trimester.
And then they were going to take away parental rights.
So if your minor daughter was going to be coerced into abortion, they didn't have to contact you.
So that was just too extreme.
And rightfully so, 59 to 41 said, no, it's too extreme.
And I think getting that messaging out and people really understanding, because there was a lot of misinformation going on.
And see, this is where a lot of legislators don't understand the complexities of us election integrity people is that election integrity may not be our primary focus.
For a few of us, it is, but there are wonderful people like you who have other primary focuses, such as right to life and some of the other issues out there.
And so it was really easy for us in SD Camanseen, Midwest Swamp Watch, Save South Dakota, and Right to Life to be able to join forces to be able to help each other out on these issues.
And your activism is so kind of the norm of what we see with activists that kind of get into election integrity: they will question: hey, wait a minute, is my issue at risk that is on the ballot?
Who can help us ensure and protect the elections and that every vote is going to be counted correctly?
And so, this is where us as election integrity experts are able to help the right to life movement as well as other movements out there to make sure that we have the poll watchers trained properly, election judges trained properly, observers, candidates, but also the initiative leaders themselves to understand what the rules of the election are to make sure that they do have a chance at an honest election.
Then, we had the direct assault on our party system here in South Dakota, and overwhelmingly, this seemed to be bipartisan.
That one went off the rails where there was kind of a proposal out there by an activist who wanted to get rid of the primary elections, kind of have a jungle primary.
And that was resoundingly defeated 66 to 34 percent.
And they used such negative marketing materials where they lied about soldiers not having a right to vote, like 150,000 soldiers that couldn't vote in primary elections.
And I'm like, no, that's not right.
You can change your party affiliation at any time and then go cast a ballot if you feel so inclined.
And we see that in our voter rolls.
That actually happens.
And the lie of this as well is that independent candidates who are not part of the party system can go get petition signed and then run in the general election.
So it's kind of like American Idol that they get the golden buzzer just by getting the petition and bypassing the primary directly to the general election.
So I'm like, what's the problem here?
And that example is that JFK was still on our ballot here in South Dakota.
Exactly.
He was.
Then the other thing that was interesting that was brought up by an activist was this one was really confusing.
And this is an example of a bad one getting on to the ballot.
And it was initiated measure 28, an initiated measure prohibiting taxes on anything sold for human consumption.
Oh, the debate stage was just all over the board on this.
So it was just like, so is this for pot?
Is this for drugs?
Is this for medicine?
Is this if I eat a bike chain?
Is this if I buy a car, I'm a consumer, right?
Consumption?
What's the definition?
Does it mean I have to physically eat or drink it?
You know, all this stuff.
And then South Dakota, because we don't have an income tax, the legislature was already screaming, oh my gosh, if this passes, we won't have enough money.
And I'm sitting there scratching my head like, you can cut.
You can still cut.
And that one was resoundedly defeated, 69 to 31%.
And so that one was actually incredible.
Now, another one where they thought third time was going to be the charm was the initiated measure 29, the measure legalizing the recreational use, possession, and distribution of marijuana.
This is kind of how our activism started in 2020 from an election integrity, is that the first time that this was brought forward, it was mixed in with other topics.
And so it was not a single topic bill.
It passed in South Dakota because of the confusion.
Christine Ohm gets it into the South Dakota Supreme Court and wipes it out.
But we had identified some voter fraud and election fraud with this marijuana.
And then when it came back on the ballot in 2022, we stopped it and it was defeated.
Then again, in 2024, we were engaged, stopped it, and defeated it again.
And I really want to congratulate Travis Ismay and all the teams there where there was $1.6 million that came in from outside money to promote marijuana.
And they spent less than $38,000 to defeat it, 56 to 44%.
And so this is where not, so South Dakota, again, proves money does not buy votes.
And that was just absolutely incredible.
And then South Dakota leads the way in regards to the CO2 pipeline bill that our own legislature passes this fake bill about the landowner bill of rights, which we all saw right through it.
And our folks basically got a petition, got the activists out there.
We were really spread thin.
And 59 to 41% of the voters said, no, we're on to your lies.
And we basically rejected the bill that the legislature and Christine Ohm signed trying to steal our property and assign the right over to the Public Utilities Commission.
And just before this, the South Dakota Supreme Court had ruled that, no, this wasn't a commodity and this was really for private gain.
And so the lies about how this was going to hurt our economy and stuff, well, that's gone.
And now that Trump is president, the Green New Deal is on the chopping block.
And so once again, America wins.
And there were kind of five other states tied into this, waiting to see what South Dakota was going to do, including us in there.
So North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and I think Illinois was part of this as well.
And so with those, with South Dakota kind of breaking that main link to kind of go up into North Dakota, that puts it all at risk.
And I believe tomorrow night, the North Dakota PUC meets on this to find out which direction they're going to go.
So, congratulations, Sonia.
Thank you for all of your hard work.
You are a representative of so many great activists throughout the United States that are out there talking to your county commissioners, talking to your auditor, making sure that the elections are top-notch, understanding the politics of the day, and getting the information out to your fellow citizens within your community to make sure that they understand what's going on.
So, it's true patriots like you that we are blessed to have such a wonderful country.
And so, you are living up to the motto: under God, the people rule.
And so, thank you so much for doing that.
And I can't wait to see where we go in 2025 with our legislature in South Dakota.
And I can't wait to see you at the legislature and around town.
Thank you for everything that you're doing.
Well, thank you, Rick.
I appreciate you having me on here and on Mike's program.
I appreciate all that he has done.
So many people, too many numerous to count, that are really working hard.
And you will probably see me at the legislature, probably testifying or something.
Yes, you will.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, we had a good run, I think, and the fight is never over.
So we've learned a lot.
We've learned a lot.
There's a lot more to do.
And I can't wait to tell our grandchildren all these great stories of what we were able to accomplish to save the country for them.
Thank you, Donald Trump.
Thank you, Mike Lindell, Apollo behind the scenes.
America, God bless you, and stay awesome, everyone.