I notice we’re getting down to less than 2 weeks before the deadline, so I’m rehashing one of those posts that I do every election, because invariably, SOMEONE SCREWS THIS UP.
In 35 years of helping candidates run for office, someone will be a cautionary tale because they make the fatal mistake of listening to a teenage clerk of some after-hours postal desk at a supermarket. Or worse yet, they assume a clerk at a real post office knows South Dakota election law. They don’t. And when asked, almost all of these tell people that certified mail is the best way to verify that it was delivered.
Do not listen to these people. The best way is the way prescribed in state law. SEND PETITIONS REGISTERED MAIL ONLY.
It’s not just newby candidates that do this. This is a trap that has foiled seasoned veterans. And then they have to run as an independent, which is embarrassing. It has happened before. It will happen again.
If you can’t drive yourself to Pierre and show up at the Secretary of State’s office before Tuesday March 26th at 5pm, we’re approaching the point.. and I’m guessing it’s in about a week or so … where if you mail your election petitions into the Secretary of State (Secretary of State, Attn: Elections, 500 E. Capitol, Pierre, SD 57501), they might not show up by the deadline on Tuesday March 26th. No matter what any clerk at a postal desk tries to talk you into, there’s only ONE proper way to mail those petitions into the Secretary of State’s office, and I can’t admonish candidates strongly enough, hence the caps and bold type.
Send those petitions in via REGISTERED mail, not certified.
There’s a good reason for it. It’s the law. If they show up after the deadline, that’s the only way they will take them. As I have noted every election over nearly a decade, under South Dakota Election law, it expressly notes “Registered mail,” and that does not include certified mail. And more specifically:
12-6-4. Except as provided by § 12-5-4 and as may be otherwise provided in chapter 12-9, no candidate for any office to be filled, or nomination to be made, at either or both the primary or general election, other than a presidential election, may have that person’s name printed upon the official primary election ballot of that person’s party, unless a petition has been filed on that person’s behalf after December thirty-first and by the last Tuesday of March at five p.m. local time before the date of the primary election. If the petition is mailed by registered mail by the last Tuesday of March at five p.m. local time before the primary election, the petition shall be considered timely submitted. A nominating petition for national convention delegates and alternates as provided in § 12-5-3.11 shall be filed in accordance with the provisions of this section. Nominating petitions for all party and public offices except legislative and judicial offices shall be filed in the office of the county auditor of the county in which the person is a candidate. Nominating petitions for legislative and judicial office whether elected in one or more counties, and all other party and public offices to be voted on in more than one county shall be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State.
Read the law for yourself here.
REGISTERED MAIL. Period.
For those who are asking “why registered mail?” there is a very specific reason.
Registered mail has a clear chain of custody that is recorded by the post office before being sent and at each point along its route to safeguard against loss, theft, or damage. It is very specifically time-stamped as well. Chain of custody and time stamp was important to those who wrote the law, and well. The law is the law. If you have trouble with following the law, it’s not a good reflection on your path as a lawmaker.
Every year there are people who let themselves get talked into sending it certified by someone who doesn’t know South Dakota Election Law.. and they find themselves out of luck. Don’t be this year’s cautionary tale.
Petitions are like a lot of things – they are best done early. Because if you do them early and screw them up, you have an opportunity to go back and fix them. It’s hard to do when you’re running it down to the wire.
And even harder if you mail them the wrong way.