Sanctioned vote buying.

U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson announced Tuesday he will not file charges over allegations of vote-buying due to early voting rallies during the 2010 election.

Combined with an earlier decision by South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley not to file charges, this means no one will face criminal sanction for the politically volatile accusations.

The issue arose when Republicans accused Democrats of violating laws against offering incentives to vote with early voting rallies on Native American reservations.

Democrats countered by accusing Republicans of violating the same law, including incidents where a Republican candidate allegedly distributed coupons along with campaign literature.

Johnson said he had determined that in all the incidents under consideration, nothing was offered “in exchange for the voting act” because “an individual could have obtained [them] and decided not to vote.”

Johnson, the relatively young son of Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD), says he consulted with the Obama Justice Department before deciding not to pursue charges against his fellow Democrats.

No doubt there would have been charges filed by Johnson if he could get away with only prosecuting Republicans. But Democrats were involved so, hey, no problem.

Sleazy. It’s all very sleazy.

Via Gabriel Malor on Twitter.