Rick Knobe’s meeting with an election denier reminded him that deniers can’t back up their outrageous claims

I came face to face with one today.

An election-denier. 

He lives in Sioux Falls and is running for public office. Wants to be a Minnehaha County commissioner.  He is a Republican. A young one. 

His name is Cole Heisey. A nice-looking and soft-spoken young man.

He was a guest at Change Agents of South Dakota. Each person in attendance gets to ask a question. 

Like those I’ve read about, Cole cites alleged instances of fraud, questionable actions by election officials and workers. When asked for specifics, he was not able to provide the who, what, when, where and how. When asked about his sources, no names, groups, companies were provided.

He did get asked about other topics: expanding county boundaries, where he would look for additional revenue to fund county needs. He was also asked about a Home Rule Charter for Minnehaha County (one of its buildings is shown above in an image from minnehahacounty.gov).

He has done some homework on county issues. That was good to hear. 

Bottom line, I can’t vote for him. He describes himself as a “New Republican,” firmly aligned with Trump.  His stance on election integrity rang hollow with me. 

If my memory is correct the vast majority of voter fraud cases were minor in terms of votes involved AND were committed by members of his Republican Party.

Having contact with an election denier was good for me. It strengthened my resolve to stay involved and promote fact based decision-making. 

Rick Knobe is a former mayor of Sioux Falls and a longtime radio talk show host who is now retired but remains active and involved in his community and state. His columns appear regularly on The South Dakota Standard.