South Dakota requires candidates running in primaries for Congress to file petitions to get on a primary ballot. The primary is June 2. The petition deadline was March 31. It appears from the Secretary of State’s list of candidates that no Democrat qualified for the Democratic primary ballot for U.S. House. Democrats needed 1,615 signatures of party members. This blog post originally said there didn’t seem to be a Democrat for U.S. Senate either, but on April 2, the Secretary of State showed a Democrat had filed for that office.
Generally South Dakota Democrats running for statewide office don’t need that many signatures. The law requires a number equal to 1% of the party’s last gubernatorial vote. The Democratic nominee for Governor in 2018, Billie Sutton, did unusually well for a Democrat in South Dakota. By comparison, after the 2014 gubernatorial election, Democrats only needed 706 signatures.
The legislature adjourned March 30. At the last minute it did pass a bill delaying April municipal elections, but it does not seem to have passed any bill to alter the June primary. Thanks to Dan Fishman for alerting me to the South Dakota candidate list. South Dakota does not permit write-ins in either primaries or the general election; it is one of only four states that has never permitted any write-ins. The others are Nevada, Hawaii, and Oklahoma.
On top of that, the filing for US House of Reps by the incumbent Dusty Johnson was illegal and is invalid. As per state law, the filing date was 3/31/2020 (https://sdsos.gov/elections-voting/upcoming-elections/general-information/2020-Presidential-Ballot-Access.aspx). He didn’t file until 4/1/2020.
Which means, unless they CHANGE THE ELECTION LAWS retroactively to suit party politics (which I expect they will do), the Libertarian candidate (who isn’t on the primary because the Libertarians vote at a convention and don’t have a primary) will win unopposed and will earn the sole South Dakota seat “for free”.
All because of rules that the duopoly set to try to keep third parties out.
Does everyone see what ballot access gains us? This two-way race, and all the publicity and educating that comes with it, might just fall into our laps. Problem is, when the ballot access chips are down, the Democrats and Republicans seem to always make exceptions for each other. Probably just to keep their “two-party system” myth alive.
NO write-ins = SUBVERSION of 14-2 abridge/deny.
ND – one more SMALL pop area (after USA genocide of American Indians in area) created by post Civil War Elephants to try for Elephant PERMANENT CONTROL of USA Senate.
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ABOLISH USA EC and Senate.
Good afternoon, everyone. I am the state chair of the Libertarian Party of South Dakota. I will check with the SOS to make sure this is the case, but my guess is that there are piles of petitions (that were turned in on-time) waiting to be verified. I make that supposition based on several other high-profile candidates posting on social media that they were turning in their petitions on Tuesday, yet their candidacies have not yet been certified.
With COVID-19, most of our state government is shut down, so it’s entirely plausible that the SD SOS Elections Division only has one person in office collecting the petitions and verifying signatures.
Thank you to Richard for publicizing this, and to those who contacted us directly as well.
All the best,
Gideon Oakes
LPSD Chair
Here are some more sources for my supposition, too:
Scyller Borglum (Republican Senate candidate)
https://www.kotatv.com/content/news/Scyller-Borglum-files-paperwork-for-US-Senate-race-569297041.html
Liz May (Republican House candidate)
https://www.facebook.com/LizMayforCongress/posts/141233087436168
Update: The Secretary of State’s office has responded to my correspondence and confirmed that the filing date listed on the website is when they (they = the office, after having processed the petitions) filed the certification, and that no petitions submitted or postmarked after the cutoff have or will be certified.
Thank you, Gideon. As of Friday noon, April 3, the only major party candidate for US House is the Republican incumbent, Dusty Johnson. Is that list final now? Or is the Secretary of State still working on some more petitions?