South Dakota's No. 2 Republican in the state Senate is facing two felony counts tied to allegedly bogus election paperwork for state Republican party positions. Court records show Senate Majority Whip Tom Pischke, 44, is charged with filing false or forged instruments after an investigation into suspicious precinct committeeman and committeewoman forms submitted to the Minnehaha County auditor just ahead of a March 31 filing deadline, the Argus Leader reports.
- Auditor Leah Anderson flagged 16 forms that appeared to share similar handwriting and mismatched voter information, prompting calls to each listed person; most said they'd never seen the forms. Thirteen later signed affidavits stating their signatures were forged.
Investigators say DNA testing linked Pischke to nine envelopes that carried the disputed documents, though he told a detective his fingerprints or DNA "shouldn't be" on any forged materials and denied filling out forms for others. An arrest warrant was issued on Monday; Pischke turned himself in the next day and was released on a personal recognizance bond. Pischke, a systems quality analyst at Esurance, served in the South Dakota House of Representatives before he was elected to the state Senate in 2022. He is seeking a third two-year term in November. His next court date is July 7.
Jim Eschenbaum, chair of the South Dakota Republican Party, tells the AP that Pischke has agreed to step away from all his party duties for now. "It's a bad optic for the party," Eschenbaum says. "I'm disappointed that this has happened. But we also have to just be honest about what's going on, you know, and deal with it."
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