South Dakota Initiatives to Alter Elections

Thanks to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News for this post.

November 9 was the deadline for South Dakota initiative petitions for the 2016 election. Two initiatives that would alter South Dakota elections were submitted. The requirement is 27,740 valid signatures.

One initiative sets up a non-partisan redistricting commission for legislative districts. Its backers submitted 40,400 signatures. If it passes, the legislative districts would be redrawn in 2017. After that the commission would operate in the year after each census. The measure has no impact on U.S. House districts because South Dakota only has one district.

The other initiative makes all elections non-partisan, except for President. No party labels would appear on the ballot, except for President. Because the measure is backed by two prominent Democrats, opponents of the measure are already saying that this is just a Democratic plan to remove party labels from the ballot because otherwise Democrats can’t win important office in South Dakota. Those two Democrats are Rick Weiland, the 2014 Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate; and Drey Samuelson, chief of staff to former U.S. Senator Tim Johnson. Johnson is the last South Dakota Democrat who served in the U.S. Senate. The non-partisan initiative turned in 39,182 signatures.











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