We last looked at the curious case of Logan Manhart, whose residency qualifications to run for the South Dakota House are the subject of 32CIV22-92; McCleerey vs Barnett in the Hughes County Court in our post Forum Communications' Mitchell Republic checked out Manhart's social media posts from WI.
The story was first broken by Cory Allen Heidelberger at the Dakota Free Press on May 5:
Manhart Voted in Wisconsin in 2021, Thus Ineligible to Run for South Dakota House in 2022 https://t.co/pQuDdUYhGm
— Dakota Free Press (@dfpblog) May 5, 2022
The story continues to have legs.
In a subcribers' only article in the Aberdeen News (we're a subscriber) veteran journalist Elisa Sand reports in Residency questions posed for South Dakota House candidate and Aberdeen city councilwoman:
Questions about residency have cropped up in the past week or so for a candidate running for the South Dakota House of Representatives and a current member of the Aberdeen City Council.
Logan Manhart, R-Bath, is one of four candidates running for two District 1 House seats. One of his opponents, former state legislator Steven McCleery, a Democrat from Sisseton, has filed a civil complaint questioning Manhart's residency.
McCleerey claims Manhart's Wisconsin voter registration in 2020 and 2021 and his participation in four elections during that time is a breach of South Dakota's residency requirements for legislative candidates.
State law requires legislative candidates to live in South Dakota for two years prior to running for a state legislative position.
Manhart voted in four elections in Eau Claire, Wis., between February 2020 and April 6, 2021, according to voter records in the complaint filed against him.
Manhart declined comment Thursday as he evaluates his legal strategies. He had yet to file a response in the civil case, and no hearing date had been set.
According to his campaign webpage, he was attending college in Wisconsin during the time in question.
"In 2021, Logan graduated with a certificate degree in Leadership Development and Management, with the goal to return home and further the conservative cause in his favorite state," his website reads, though it doesn't offer details about where he attended school. . . .
Prior to registering to vote in Wisconsin, Manhart voted in two elections in South Dakota as a registered Brown County voter. According to the Brown County Auditor's Office, Manhart registered to vote as a Republican in July 2016 and voted in the general elections in 2016 and 2018. His voter registration did not lapse but, was updated in 2021 when he canceled his Wisconsin voter registration, Auditor Cathy McNickle said.
According to the South Dakota secretary of state's website, a residence is defined as "the place in which a person has fixed his or her habitation and to which the person, whenever absent, intends to return."
The definition goes on to say that if a person leaves temporarily, they haven't changed their residence. A person loses his or her residency when they move with the intent of making that place their permanent residence, per state law.
Secretary of State Steve Barnett said he couldn't speak in detail about the complaint, but he expects the court to make a fairly speedy decision.
The residency question, Barnett said, comes down Manhart's intent to return to South Dakota.
The validity of candidate petitions can be challenged up to five days after they've been filed with the Secretary of State's Office. After that, Barnett said, it's an issue for the courts. . . .
Sand's use of Manhart's campaign website prompted us to recall some posts from his personal Facebook page from the Summer of 2021 that suggest Manhart was living and working in Wisconsin. There's the July 15, 2021 post (screenshot at the top of this post in case of the Facebook embed is made private or deleted):
Worth noting that this doesn't seem to be a short-term, election-year job, but one taken during an off year. It's unclear exactly when in 2021 (as Dakota Free Press reports):
Manhart completed a certificate in leadership development and management at Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. (Note: the leadership development certificate requires six credits; the supervisory management certificate requires nine credits. So when Manhart says he graduated with a “certificate degree,” he may be overstating his credentials.)
Was this a post-graduation job?
After that announcement, Manhart shared a couple of posts related to the job (we have screenshots):
(More about the Dunn County Patriots here).
There's also that life event in the screenshot of moving to Green Bay, Wisconsin on August 31, 2020--not exactly part of South Dakota, as far as we know. We don't see anything about intent to return to South Dakota during the summer of 2021.
The first mention of his candidacy that the public can see was posted on December 12, 2021.
It's worth revisiting the Dakota Free Press post that broke the story, Manhart Voted in Wisconsin in 2021, Thus Ineligible to Run for South Dakota House in 2022.
Related posts:
- Dakota Free Press post: Manhart voted in Wisconsin in 2021, thus ineligible to run for South Dakota House in 2022
- Manhart candidate integrity questioned: docs from 32CIV22-92; McCleerey vs Barnett
- In SD District One, GOP candidate & operative doesn't want to talk to press about January 6
Screenshot: After working on President Trump’s Re-Election Campaign in 2020 in Wisconsin (Manhart campaign website), Manhart took a position as a field director in July 2021 with the Republican Party of Wisconsin. It's unclear whether he was hired before or after he finished his certificate in leadership development and management at Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
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