Changes in signature requirements for 2020. A closer Gubernatorial race combined with abysmal voter outreach has made it tougher for Democrats.

As a result of the competitive race for Governor in the last election, signature requirements for statewide office got more than twice as challenging for Democrats, and a wee bit easier for Republicans.

In South Dakota, the number of signatures required for the ballot are based on a simple formula for primary elections. The number of signatures required are based on a percentage (1%) of the vote for each party’s candidate for Governor:

 12-6-7.   Petition composed of several sheets–Signature requirements. A nominating petition may be composed of several sheets, each sheet shall have identical headings printed at the top and shall be a self-contained sheet of paper. The petition for party office or political public office shall be signed by not less than one percent of the voters who voted for that party’s gubernatorial candidate at the last gubernatorial election in the county, part of the county, district, or state electing a candidate to fill the office. If the party meets the requirement for alternative political status as defined in § 12-1-3.1, the petition for party office or political public office shall be signed by not less than one percent of the voters who voted for that party’s statewide candidate receiving the highest votes at the last gubernatorial election in the county, part of the county, district, or state electing a candidate to fill the office.

Read that here.

How does the recently past Gubernatorial election change signature requirements for the upcoming 2020 election? Roughly as follows:

(Independents have to post 1% of total vote for Gov, per 12-7-1)

Having an utterly awful candidate in Susan Wismer in 2014, Democrats had earned themselves a much easier time in putting candidates on the ballot for a couple of cycles. But with a more competitive candidate comes a bit of a tougher time. The signature requirements on petitions for Democrats running for statewide office have more than doubled, with an increase of over 900 signatures added to place their candidates on the ballot.

With a more competitive race for Governor (i.e., Dems running someone not as unelectable as Susan Wismer, in a GOP presidential mid-term election), the race was closer, and the GOP lead was cut into. And that translates into slightly relaxed signature requirements for the GOP in 2020, cutting a couple hundred signatures from the requirements for Republicans to achieve the statewide ballot.

Now, there’s another item that should be taken along with all of this. How do the signature requirements compare against voter registration changes since 2014?

Republicans gained nearly 16k voters, while Democrats have shed over 17k. And in just a few short months since the last election, the GOP advantage is doing nothing but accelerating, as we added over 3k voters just since November.  On just a pure percentage basis, what that translates into is that the GOP is going to have an easier time in collecting signatures for being placed on the ballot.

Who should Democrats blame for this ever growing disparity? Themselves of course.

The disparity arises as Democrats’ momentary presidential mid-term election bump slams up against a long-term and sustained failure in voter registration. After shedding voters for years, they’ve made it harder on themselves to get people on the ballot because it requires a higher and higher percentage of Democrat voters to get on the ballot.  The ultimate numbers aren’t that high, so it remains to be seen if this creates a barrier for Democrat candidates.

But at the least, their poor party efforts at Democrat voter registration are going to require their candidates to put more resources into beating the bushes to find people to sign petitions.