Wall Street Journal's Political Diary

The Wall Street Journal's Political Diary has the following observations about the the restraining order issued by a tribal court excluding Republicans from poll-watching on the reservation:

Two years ago, a suspicious surge in votes from South Dakota's Shannon County, home of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, gave Democratic Senator Tim Johnson a second term by 524 votes over Republican John Thune. Now Mr. Thune is running again, this time against Tom Daschle, the Senate Minority Leader. And once again, allegations are surfacing about shenanigans in Shannon County.

State's Attorney Lance Russell has launched an investigation into suspicions that some residents have already cast multiple ballots. "We do have a few people who have voted more than once," he told reporters. Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney James McMahon isn't amused by a tribal judge's order aimed at preventing the state Republican Party from having any contact with Four Directions, a get-out-the-vote group financed by Democrats. The Democratic group has accused Republican monitors of videotaping them on private property; Oglala Sioux tribal Judge Marina Fast Horse duly issued a restraining order to stop the GOP efforts. But Mr. McMahon, the federal prosecutor, calls that action illegal and told the Associated Press that law enforcement officials "should not be enforcing any order on the reservation which purports to keep the Republican Party away from the polls."

There may be good reason why Democrats and tribal officials want to avoid scrutiny. Paul Brenner, a lawyer from Virginia who is observing the election on behalf of Republicans, filed an affidavit claiming that on Friday he was sitting with a poll watcher for Senator Daschle when they were approached by two women who asked when they would get paid to vote. In another incident on Thursday, he talked with another woman who was driving people to the polls. "I told (her) I had heard that the Daschle campaign office in Rosebud was offering a better deal to vote haulers than Four Directions, because they paid $10 a voter, plus a free meal at the Rosebud Casino. She said she already knew that and was also getting paid by the Daschle campaign office," Mr. Brenner wrote.

If Mr. Thune leads Mr. Daschle on Election Night, don't assume the race is over until the last precinct is in. In 2002, Mr. Thune led Senator Johnson by 3,729 votes at 3:41 a.m. with what Clifford Scott, the former chairman of the South Dakota Democratic Party, later called "all the no-reservation counties reporting. But either by accident or design the majority of the reservation precincts... had not reported."

When they did, they brought in just enough votes to defeat Mr. Thune.