On February 27, the South Dakota Senate unanimously passed HB 1012. The bill is now on its way to the Governor. No legislator in either house voted against this bill. It says that a party must meet the vote test every four years. Current law says it must pass the vote test every two years. The bill has an urgency clause so assuming it is signed by the Governor, it will go into effect immediately.

For many years the vote test only had to be met every four years, but could only be satisfied by the gubernatorial vote. Last year, when the legislature eased that law to say any statewide office counts, that had the accidental indirect consequence of requiring the vote test to be met every two years. So the new bill restores the old rule that the vote test need be met only every four years.