Bad Lands, Bad Votes

ON Election Day, Noma Sazama knew something unusual was going on the moment she arrived at her polling place, the St. Thomas Parish Hall in Mission, South Dakota. Sazama, a member of the local election board, noticed several strangers in the room—an unusual sight in Mission, population 904, where most people know one another. It turned out the strangers were all lawyers, Democrats who had come to town to serve as poll watchers for the race between incumbent Democratic senator Tim Johnson and Republican John Thune. One was from Washington, D.C., another was from New York City, and a third was from California. “There were no locals, and I’ve never seen that happen before,” says Sazama, who has lived in the area for 73 years.

According to Sazama, the Democratic team quickly set up shop in the Parish Hall kitchen, just a few feet from the tables where voters would cast their ballots. The party had rented dozens of vans and hired drivers to bring voters to the polls, and the out-of-state lawyers made the kitchen their transportation headquarters. “I saw this young man from New York with boxes of file cards,” Sazama says. They had the names and time-of-pickup and whether someone voted on them, and from those he would contact the drivers.” It took her a few minutes to realize that the Democrats intended to run their get-out-the-vote effort from inside the polling place.

About the Author

Byron York

Byron York is a former White House correspondent for National Review.

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ON Election Day, Noma Sazama knew something unusual was going on the moment she arrived at her polling place, the St. Thomas Parish Hall in Mission, South Dakota. Sazama, a member of the local election board, noticed several strangers in the room—an unusual sight in Mission, population 904, where most people know one another. It turned out the strangers were all lawyers, Democrats who had come to town to serve as poll watchers for the race between incumbent Democratic senator Tim Johnson and Republican John Thune. One was from Washington, D.C., another was from New York City, and a third was from California. “There were no locals, and I’ve never seen that happen before,” says Sazama, who has lived in the area for 73 years.

According to Sazama, the Democratic team quickly set up shop in the Parish Hall kitchen, just a few feet from the tables where voters would cast their ballots. The party had rented dozens of vans and hired drivers to bring voters to the polls, and the out-of-state lawyers made the kitchen their transportation headquarters. “I saw this young man from New York with boxes of file cards,” Sazama says. They had the names and time-of-pickup and whether someone voted on them, and from those he would contact the drivers.” It took her a few minutes to realize that the Democrats intended to run their get-out-the-vote effort from inside the polling place.