This is old news, but it has just come to my attention. In 2000 Ralph Nader won a federal lawsuit against South Dakota’s June petition deadline for independent presidential candidates. Nader v Hazeltine, 110 F Supp 2d 1201. The court said June is too early for presidential independents. The state did not appeal, and in 2001 passed Senate Bill 7, moving the deadline for presidential independents from June to the first Tuesday in August.

However, in 2012, the legislature passed HB 1182. The intent of that bill was to move the non-presidential independent deadline from June to April. However, HB 1182 apparently accidentally repealed the sentence at the end of section 12-7-1 that had set an August deadline for presidential independents. There is no longer any separate law governing independent presidential petition deadlines. Technically, the law now says the independent presidential deadline is in April. But since even June was too early, it is obvious that April is also unconstitutional. It is not known what position the Secretary of State will take. Already South Dakota is being sued for having a too-early petition deadline for new parties.