South Dakota Changes to Initiative and Referendum Requirements Measure (2020)
| South Dakota Changes to Initiative and Referendum Requirements Measure | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 2020 | |
| Topic Direct democracy measures | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type State statute | Origin Citizens |
The South Dakota Changes to Initiative and Referendum Requirements Measure was not on the ballot in South Dakota as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 3, 2020.
Measure design
The measure would have made the following changes to initiative and referendum requirements in South Dakota:[1]
- Eliminate some information a ballot measure petition circulator must provide to a petition signer, including the circulator's contact information and whether or not the circulator is paid;
- Eliminate the law barring individuals from sponsoring or circulating petitions for four years if they committed multiple petition-law violations;
- Change fiscal note requirements for initiated state statutes and initiated constitutional amendments and removes fiscal notes from the ballot for these types of measures;
- Decrease the time in which the Attorney General must file the ballot title and ballot explanation;
- Change the deadline for sponsors to file signed initiative petitions with the Secretary of State to four months prior to the general election rather than one year prior to the general election;
- Change the effective date of most voter-approved ballot measures would take effect the day after the official vote canvass, rather than the following July 1 as the law currently states; and
- Repeal the statute that prohibits an initiated measure from comprising more than one subject.
Text of measure
Ballot title
The ballot title for this measure would have been as follows:[2]
| “ | An initiated measure changing initiative and referendum requirements.[3] | ” |
Ballot summary
The ballot explanation for this measure would have been as follows:[2]
| “ | This measure changes and repeals laws regarding ballot measures. It eliminates some information a petition circulator must provide to a petition signer, including circulator contact information and a statement whether the circulator is paid. It eliminates the requirement that sponsors submit circulator residency information.
It repeals the law barring individuals from sponsoring or circulating petitions for four years if they have committed multiple petition-law violations. It repeals the law extending the Legislative Research Council's deadline for reviewing initiated measures received during legislative session. It changes fiscal note requirements for initiated measures and initiated constitutional amendments, and removes fiscal notes from the ballot for these types of measures. It decreases the time in which the Attorney General must file a title and explanation for initiated measures and initiated amendments. It repeals the law prohibiting an initiated measure from embracing more than one subject. Currently, sponsors must file signed initiative petitions with the Secretary of State at least one year prior to the general election. The measure changes this deadline to four months prior. Under this measure, most voter-approved ballot measures would take effect the day after the official vote canvass, rather than the following July 1 as the law currently states.[3] |
” |
Full text
The full text of the measure can be found here.
Path to the ballot
The state process
In South Dakota, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the previous gubernatorial election. Signatures must be submitted by the first Tuesday of May during a general election year.
The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the 2020 ballot:
- Signatures: 16,961 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was November 4, 2019.
Once the signatures have been gathered and filed, the secretary of state verifies the signatures using a random sample method.
Details about this initiative
- The original attorney general's summary was delivered to South Dakota Secretary of State Shantel Krebs on November 21, 2018.[1] Proponents of the measure filed a revised version of the initiative, for which an attorney general's statement (called "Version 2") was delivered to the Secretary of State on December 6, 2018.
- Version 2 of the measure was approved to circulate on February 13, 2019.[4]
- Proponents did not submit the required number of signatures by the deadline.[4]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 South Dakota Secretary of State, "Attorney General's Letter," accessed November 21, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedletter - ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 South Dakota Secretary of State, "Potential 2020 ballot questions," accessed February 19, 2019
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