GOP board member resigns

Denise Ross - October 21, 2004

One former state lawmaker is, as of Wednesday, also a former member of the South Dakota Republican Party's executive board.

Jan Nicolay, who represented Sioux Falls for 14 years in the state House of Representatives and was chairman of the appropriations committee, said negative campaign tactics and what she views as mishandling of the absentee ballot process led to her decision.

"I'm not happy with that at all," Nicolay said of an absentee ballot snafu that affected voters on several college campuses.

State law requires absentee ballot applications to be signed by a notary public who witnesses the voter signing the application. Apparently, young workers for the state Republican Party and College Republicans collected the ballot applications, and notaries who did not see the voter sign the application affixed notary seals to the documents at a later time.

Both the South Dakota Republican Party and College Republicans fired those involved in the clouded absentee ballot applications, but Nicolay said party officials had a responsibility to see that the situation never got that far.

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