PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - A South Dakota House panel on Wednesday rejected a bill that would have made it harder for voters to put initiatives on the ballot.
The House State Affairs Committee voted 11-1 to defeat the bill, which would have required ballot measure supporters to fan out across South Dakota to gather signatures. Republicans have discussed changing the initiative process after an election season with 10 ballot questions that brought millions of dollars from out-of-state groups pouring into South Dakota campaigns.
But top GOP lawmakers including House Speaker Mark Mickelson, Senate Majority Leader Blake Curd and Gov. Dennis Daugaard say they don’t want to make it harder to get measures on the ballot. Last week, a Senate panel tabled a bill that would significantly increase the number of signatures required for constitutional amendments.
“I’m disappointed by the number of out-of-state initiated measures, and yet at the same time, every time you put an obstacle in front of those, you can’t at the same time put an obstacle in front of ordinary South Dakota citizens who have their own wishes and needs to bring before the rest of the voters,” Daugaard said. “I think a higher signature requirement is the wrong approach to stopping out-of-state meddling.”
Republican Rep. Chris Karr, who supported the House bill defeated Wednesday, said the goal was to make sure that South Dakota voters are better represented by setting a geographical distribution requirement for signatures needed to get on the ballot. Foes said it would have made it more difficult for in-state grassroots efforts to put initiatives before voters while having little effect on well-funded groups.
“If I’m Joe Millionaire from out-of-state California, wherever, and this is on the books, the only thing it means to me is maybe putting a few more dollars on a check as a contribution,” committee Chairman Larry Rhoden said.
The House committee sent two initiative-related bills to the chamber’s floor that come after voter-approved measures on payday loans, crime victims’ rights and government ethics caused chaos for officials and business starting just days after the November election.
One of the bills the committee backed Wednesday would postpone the date that voter-approved laws would take effect, which supporters say would give officials time to implement them. It would change the start date from shortly after Election Day to the following July 1, which Democrats say is too long of a delay.
The measures are meant to make improvements without harming access to the ballot, Mickelson said. The other bill that passed would require the Secretary of State’s office to accept written comments from voters and require lawmakers to hold a public hearing to review any measures set to appear on the next general election ballot.
“We didn’t do anything to impede the ballot initiative process, and I think it’s very careful that we don’t, because I think that is held sacrosanct,” Mickelson said.
The panel delayed action on a bill that would limit contributions from outside of South Dakota for ballot measures.
The bill would bar initiative committees from accepting out-of-state contributions exceeding 75 percent of total in-state contributions. Business groups opposed it, while the governor’s office offered support for such legislation.
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