South Dakota state Sen. Tom Pischke is facing up to four years in prison on election fraud charges, the most serious legal trouble to hit a sitting member of the Legislature in recent memory.
Pischke, a Republican senator, was charged in connection with election fraud — though the specific conduct alleged against him hasn’t been detailed in court documents made public so far. The maximum penalty under the charges as filed is four years.
He’s still a sitting state senator. No suspension or removal proceeding has been announced.
Election fraud cases against elected officials are rare in South Dakota. A conviction on charges carrying that kind of prison exposure would ordinarily trigger questions about whether a lawmaker could continue serving — but no legislative action had been taken as of Friday, June 27.
Details on the specific counts, the county where charges were filed, and whether Pischke has entered a plea were not immediately available. His attorney, if he has retained one, has not been identified publicly.
