District 7 members of the South Dakota Farmers Union voted down resolutions yesterday to call for the resignation of the state officers and to hold a special election. The vote was 7 to 46. Angela Brandt, a partner with Larson King in St. Paul, is the lawyer that conducted the election audit at the heart of the resolutions and says she has found no evidence of fraud.

She says the credentials cards were destroyed, which is routine under the bylaws. However, despite earlier reports, the ballots from the December election have been retained by the state office.

Brandt says regardless of the district resolutions there is no mechanism in the Farmers Union bylaws to allow a revote. And there is no recourse under state cooperative law in South Dakota because the organization is not a coop.

She says they’re working the with Secretary of State’s office to clarify the standing of the Farmers Union under the original charter. Brandt adds that as far as the allegations of employee abuse by the officers there has never been a formal complaint filed by any of the staff, and she does not believe it is a conflict of interest that she is related to a staff member.