CLAIM: Two Victorious South Dakota Democrats Lived Out of State Weeks Before Filing for Office, Violating Campaign Law

  |  
Dec 19, 2018
[Emmy-Award Winning Investigative journalist Shad Olson filed this report]:
In a national election cycle rife with fraud, evidence has emerged showing two recently-elected Democrat members of the South Dakota legislature were actually residents of Nebraska and Colorado just prior to their candidate filings for state office, allegedly violating campaign law.
 
An independent investigation by Emmy-winning investigative reporter and author, Shad Olson and others, showed evidence supporting allegations that State Senator-Elect Red Dawn Foster and Representative-elect Peri Pourier did not meet South Dakota constitutional stipulations regarding in-state residency for prospective statewide office holders requiring two years of uninterrupted residency within state boundaries to be eligible to run.
“Given the evidence gathered, there is every reason to suspect that these individuals engaged in a deliberate effort to mislead state officials, voters and their fellow legislators that they were legally qualified to run for state office in South Dakota, when documentation shows otherwise,” Olson said.
 
Pourier and Foster, who both claimed in sworn candidate petition filings to be residents of South Dakota’s poverty-stricken Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, now face affidavit challenge of their swearing in when South Dakota’s bicameral legislature convenes in early January.  
 
Foster filed candidate documents claiming an address in Pine Ridge, South Dakota that corresponds to a municipal park that is not the location of any known inhabitable dwelling. She also provided a mailing address that state voting records show her sharing with 27 other registered voters in South Dakota. 
 
But a search of vital records and easily obtained online contact information seem to indicate Foster is a longtime resident of the state of Colorado, residing at an address in the Denver suburb of Thornton, Colorado between 2013 and this month. Foster has maintained a total of five Colorado  telephone numbers over the past five years.
 
Meanwhile, Colorado property tax assessments for 2017 show Foster as the owner of a house at the corresponding Thornton, Colorado address while additional contact information searches are also consistent with her apparent Colorado residency until December of this year.  If proven accurate, such evidence blatantly contradicts Foster’s sworn compliance with legal eligibility to run for office in South Dakota. 
 
Pourier also provided a physical address on the Pine Ridge that does not correspond with any known inhabitable human dwelling. Vital records searches for Pourier indicate she was a resident of Rushville, Nebraska from late 2016 until Jan. 2018. A rental agreement and termination notice obtained by the investigators shows Pourier vacated a rental apartment in Oct. 2018, just prior to South Dakota’s Nov. 8 statewide election, in which Pourier was elected State Representative for South Dakota’s 27th legislative district.
A sworn affidavit claims that Pourier rented the home in Rushville from mid-2017 into this year.
“Election integrity must remain a matter of great concern for Americans in states across this nation where the laws governing fair, equitable and honest voting practice and candidacy are being openly flouted by the Democrat Party, both in how they collect, harvest and count their ballots and in some cases, how they select and portray their candidates for elected office,” Olson said.
Both candidates could be barred from holding elected office in South Dakota, and Olsen told Big League Politics that the state GOP is investigating the matter. 
“As in Arizona and California and Florida and so many other places, it’s now up to the elected leadership of South Dakota to decide whether the rule of law is enforced in the qualifying of candidates and whether election process conforms to the laws of our state.”
South Dakota Secretary of State Shantel Krebs did not immediately return a comment request. Attorney General Marty Jackley’s office declined to comment.

Radio host and author, Shad Olson, is an Emmy-winning and Edward R. Murrow awarded investigative reporter living in Rapid City, South Dakota. His work has won numerous awards for excellence in broadcast journalism. He has shared the stage with numerous national personalities and appeared on radio and television broadcasts from coast to coast. He is also the published author of more than 100 works of short fiction. His collection, Tales from the Red Rooster Cafe is available at Barnes & Noble and on Amazon.com

Our Latest Articles