On March 8, a conference committee of the South Dakota legislature revised the ballot access bill and greatly improved it. Then, both houses of the legislature passed the bill. The Senate vote was unanimous and in the House, only five members voted “no.”
The new ballot access procedure for small qualified parties is a petition of 1% of the last gubernatorial vote, due July 1. Then, the new party, and also older qualified smaller parties, are free to nominate for all office by convention, with no more petitioning needed.
The bill helps independent candidates by moving their petition deadline from April to July. UPDATE: unfortunately, the improvement in the independent petition deadline did not make it into the final bill. Thanks to Kurt Evans for that information.
More separate and unequal stuff.
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PR and AppV
Bad news first: When they reverted to the original bill, I think we lost the improved deadline for independent candidates. I’m guessing you’ll be disappointed. I am too. Hopefully we can get that one through next year.
Good news: Under current law, I’m pretty sure an independent who files valid signatures even as late as the first week in August can win a ballot-access lawsuit.
Thank you, Kurt. I amended the post.