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S. Dakota poll worker faces forgery charges


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PIERRE, South Dakota (CNN) -- A South Dakota election worker will be arrested on charges of forging absentee ballot applications, the state's attorney general announced Friday.

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Becky Red Earth-Villeda, also known as Maka Duta, is expected to be charged on multiple counts of forgery in Minnehaha County, where Sioux Falls is located, according to a statement from Attorney General Mark Barnett.

"Maka Duta will be arrested in the ordinary course of events," said Barnett. "No evidence has been obtained that shows she has cast or made an attempt to cast actual ballots."

A local Sioux Falls newspaper, the Argus Leader, reported that the woman apparently tried to burn the original applications, but then decided to retrieve them, according to Barnett.

The woman told the attorney general she copied the applicants' names from the original documents because they had been filled out wrong, then she apparently tried to replicate the voter's signature on the corrected form, the newspaper reported.

County auditors alerted the state's Division of Criminal Investigation about allegations of bogus ballot applications, according to Barnett's office. At least 30 DCI agents are working on the case and have interviewed over 400 people in 25 South Dakota counties.

DCI agents also conducted a lengthy interview with Maka Duta Tuesday.

The information obtained is still being processed.

"Voters should proceed as normal and go to the polls on the 5th," said Barnett.

It is not clear how many absentee ballot applications are believed to have been forged, but Barnett told the Argus Leader between 80 and 100 are suspected in one county alone.



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