Makenzie Huber, South Dakota Searchlight
South Dakota Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden issued his second veto of the legislative session, rejecting a bill that would place new restrictions on citizen-initiated constitutional amendments.
He also signed a large group of other election-related bills into law Tuesday, including a bill requiring labels on political deepfakes within 90 days of an election, and legislation limiting full-time travelers such as RVers to federal-only ballots when they vote in South Dakota elections.
The vetoed legislation, House Bill 1169, would require constitutional amendment petitions to receive signatures from registered voters in each of the 35 state Senate districts. Groups would need signatures equal to 5% of the total votes cast for governor in each district during the last general election.
That would be in addition to current requirements that petitions have a total number of signatures equal to at least 10% of the votes cast statewide for governor in the last general election. Current law says those signatures can be from anywhere in the state.
Voter advocacy groups raised alarms last week, urging the governor to veto the bill and pledging to petition it to the ballot if he signed it. The Voter Defense Association of South Dakota praised the governor’s veto in a press release Tuesday and urged lawmakers to sustain it.
“House Bill 1169 was a deeply flawed bill that would have severely and unjustly restricted the initiated amendment process in South Dakota,” the release said.
In a letter to lawmakers, Rhoden said the 35-district requirement risks creating a system where “dark money out-of-state groups” with more financial resources are the only entities that could effectively undertake a statewide petition drive.
He added that the bill’s requirements might not be upheld in state or federal court. A federal court could determine the bill imposes an illegally severe burden on political speech, he wrote, and he questioned whether the baseline level of petition signatures required in the state constitution can be modified by a statute.
“I swore an oath to support both the South Dakota and the United States Constitutions – and I am concerned about this bill in both regards,” Rhoden wrote.
Lawmakers could override Rhoden’s action with a two-thirds vote of each chamber when they gather on Monday to consider his vetoes. The bill had more than two-thirds support from the House when it passed, but had less than two-thirds support in the Senate.
Rhoden vetoed another bill earlier this session, which would have offered more child care tuition assistance to child care workers. The Legislature considered that veto earlier this month and failed to override it.
Election bills signed
Gov. Larry Rhoden approved 20 other election-related bills Tuesday:
- SB 68 requires an individual to be a citizen of the United States before being eligible to vote and provides a penalty.
- SB 73 requires that an individual registering as a voter when applying for a driver license be a resident of the state for the purposes of voting.
- SB 75 requires an indication of U.S. citizenship status on a motor vehicle operator’s license or permit, and on a nondriver identification card (valid identification is required to vote).
- SB 89 repeals the requirement that judicial officers be listed on a separate nonpolitical ballot.
- SB 91 revises the requirements, including minimum font sizes, for a petition to initiate a measure or constitutional amendment or to refer a law.
- SB 92 requires that the director of the Legislative Research Council and the secretary of state review an initiated measure and determine if the measure embraces more than one subject.
- SB 106 requires an individual be registered as a voter of the state before being eligible to be a petition sponsor for a ballot measure.
- SB 164 prohibits the use of a deepfake to influence an election and provides a penalty.
- SB 173 revises the process by which a recount may be requested.
- SB 185 amends provisions pertaining to the process for verifying voter qualifications.
- HB 1062 amends provisions pertaining to the maintenance and publication of the statewide voter registration file.
- HB 1066 revises residency requirements for voter registration, and says registrants must have spent 30 consecutive days at a single physical location in the state.
- HB 1126 modifies provisions pertaining to the compensation of a recount board.
- HB 1127 requires that notice of a county’s canvass, post-election audit, and testing of automatic tabulating equipment be posted to the secretary of state’s website.
- HB 1130 provides permissible dates in June and November for municipal and school district elections.
- HB 1164 revises the process for nominating candidates for lieutenant governor, allowing candidates for governor, rather than state political conventions, to choose running mates.
- HB 1184 moves the deadline for filing a petition to initiate a measure or constitutional amendment from May to February, shortening the window by three months.
- HB 1208 limits a voter using the address of a mail forwarding service or post office box — such as a full-time traveling RVer — to a federal-only ballot.
- HB 1256 requires the inclusion of certain information on a candidate’s nominating petition or on a ballot question petition.
- HB 1264 requires the disclosure of an outstanding loan balance on a campaign finance disclosure report.