An interesting study in

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An interesting study in contrasts.

Here’s a clip from today’s article (“Barnett: No illegal ballots found”) in the Argus Leader, in which South Dakota’s Republican Attorney General, Mark Barnett, throws a good deal of cold water on the whole ‘voter fraud’ story.

The investigation into allegations of voter fraud in South Dakota has not turned up any illegally cast ballots but the woman at the center of the controversy still likely will face charges, Attorney General Mark Barnett said late Wednesday.

Barnett said last week that state and federal authorities had found 15 absentee ballot applications with apparently forged signatures. The bad documents surfaced during an investigation of voter abnormalities in 25 counties including registrations for people who were dead or too young to vote.

Throughout the controversy, Barnett has smothered discussion of widespread voting irregularities, saying the investigation was focused on one woman, Becky Red Earth-Villeda of Flandreau who was working as independent contractor under a Democratic Party voter drive.

On Wednesday, the attorney general said the woman’s actions, while likely criminal, have not led to fraudulent voting.

“So far I have not found that she had any ballots that have been illegally voted,” he said in an interview.

Here’s the Republican National Committee mailing (just added to the TPM Document Collection) South Dakotans received in their mailboxes today. The headline pretty much says it all: “Tim Johnson and the Democrats are Hiding the Truth about Voter Fraud.” But if you want all the ugly details you can look for yourself.

It doesn’t get any slimier.

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