Five people face charges in connection with absentee ballot applications that were filled out on some South Dakota college campuses, Attorney General Larry Long and other officials said Friday.

They were identified as Joseph Alick, 28; Nathan Mertz, 20; Todd Schlekeway, 27; Rachel Hoff, 22; and Eric Fahrendorf, 24. Fahrendorf had been listed as a Republican Party employee. Officials said the rest were volunteers.

All had resigned earlier from a GOP get-out-the-vote effort after questions arose as to whether some absentee ballot requests were signed by the student in the presence of the notary public whose seal was affixed to the request.

The five and another worker, Larry Russell, resigned earlier this month. Russell had sought the party's nomination for a special U.S. House election in June and most recently directed the GOP's get-out-the-vote program.

Russell, who headed the Republican Victory operation, was replaced by Herb Jones, manager of U.S. Senate candidate John Thune's 2002 Senate bid.

Several students on various campuses have questioned the absentee ballot application process, saying young men secured their applications, and no women witnessed their signatures, yet the notarization of the documents was signed by a woman.

Long said the investigation didn't reveal a concerted effort by Republican officials to sidestep the system.

"I don't think we found that it was policy, what we found was sloppy supervision frankly," Long said.

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