On March 10, the South Dakota Senate passed HB 1169. It requires constitutional amendments to get signatures in all 35 legislative districts. Currently all the signatures can come from anywhere in the state. The Senate vote was 19-15. The bill had already passed the House.
On March 3, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed SB 211. It requires initiative circulators to file an affidavit when that circulator’s first batch of signatures is submitted. The circulator must then not collect any more signatures until the Secretary of State notifies the circulator that his or her affidavit has been processed. Here is the text.
On February 26, the Arkansas legislature passed SB 207. It says that an initiative circulator must tell everyone approached that petition fraud is a criminal offense. Here is the text. If the circulator does not follow this law, the circulator is guilty of a misdemeanor.
On March 3, the Arkansas legislature passed SB 208. It requires initiative circulators to ask potential signers to first show their photo ID to the circulator, before signing. Here is the text. It has an urgency clause and takes effect as soon as the Governor signs the bill.
On March 10, the Arkansas House passed SB 209. It had already passed the House. It says if the Secretary of State finds by a preponderance of the evidence that any particular initiative circulator had violated laws regarding canvassing, perjury, forgery, or fraudulent practices, no signatures collected by that circulator are valid. Here is the text.
The House refused to pass an urgency clause, because that takes two-thirds, so the bill must return to the Senate.
