On January 24, the South Dakota House unanimously passed HB 1035, which makes it illegal to pay circulators on a per-signature basis, if they are circulating a petition to put a new or previously unqualified party on the ballot. The bill now goes to the Senate Committee.
South Dakota already has a similar law in place for candidate petitions and initiative petitions. Thanks to Rob Richie for news of this bill.
Didn’t this get passed as a law back around 2007, and was then thrown out in a lawsuit filed by the Libertarian Party?
No. South Dakota is in the 8th circuit. In 2001, the 8th circuit upheld a law like that in North Dakota, which is also in the 8th circuit, so it would be difficult to overturn this law in court. The 8th circuit is the only circuit that has also upheld bans on out-of-state circulators, in that same case, called Initiative & Referendum Institute v Jaeger. The record on striking down bans on pay-per-signature is more mixed.
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