Bosworth: No Intent To Mislead With Candidate Petitions
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Former U.S. Senate candidate Annette Bosworth testified Friday that she never intended to mislead anyone when she attested to signatures on her candidate petitions that she didn’t actually witness.
Bosworth, seeking to avoid conviction at her trial on charges of violating South Dakota election law, has acknowledged she was out of the country on a medical mission during the period her petitions were circulating.
Bosworth said she hadn’t reviewed the requirements well enough when she affirmed she had witnessed the signatures on certain petitions. She called her actions “careless.”
“I was doing everything possible to get it right,” Bosworth said. “I felt like I did a very good job trying. Clearly I’m sitting here because we screwed up.”
Her defense has also argued that Bosworth got bad advice from her attorney and political consultant at the time, Joel Arends.
Arends testified Thursday that Bosworth is more knowledgeable about the political process than she is letting on, and called it “a lie” that he had advised her she didn’t need to witness signatures.
Bosworth’s attorneys say Arends told her she could properly call herself the petitions’ “circulator” because they were circulated under her direction. Bosworth said Arends advised her on the subject during a specific instance at her medical office in 2014.
She appeared calm while testifying, at times smiling.
“Were you trying to pull a fast one on anybody?” Defense attorney Bob Van Norman asked Bosworth.
“No,” she replied.
Bosworth has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of perjury and filing false documents. State sentencing guidelines suggested she was unlikely to face prison time if convicted, but her medical license could be jeopardized.
She received just 6 percent of the vote in a five-way Republican primary in 2014 that was won by former Gov. Mike Rounds. Rounds went on to win the seat.
