The Anti-Abortion movement is in the news again as it comes out on KELOland that after all their bluster and phone banking, they only managed to get 21 people to withdraw their signatures from the ballot:
In the four months since a new South Dakota law took effect allowing registered voters to withdraw their signatures from initiated ballot measures, there hasn’t been a rush to use it.
The South Dakota Secretary of State office has received 21 of those requests through mid-July, according to state elections division director Rachel Soulek.
She said all 21 requests came from registered voters who had signed their names to petitions for an initiated amendment that would place abortion rights in the South Dakota Constitution.
After the petitions were sample-tested to determine whether they met the legal minimum of 35,017 valid signatures, Secretary of State Monae Johnson validated the measure to be on the 2024 general election ballot.
After all their fuss and folderol, and at one time being labeled a ‘scam’ by the Secretary of State, they only managed to withdraw 21 signatures?
How much did they spend on those 21 signatures? It’s hard to say.
The “Petition Integrity PAC” Chaired by Life Defense Fund co-chair Jon Hansen claims it had $546.72 in donated “telephones” from the Life Defense Fund. It doesn’t mention anything about the other costs, such as people to run them, etc., but they are clearly operating hand-in-hand with the Defense Fund, which after similarly failing to get people to not sign the petitions, failed at this effort as well.
Petition Integrity Report by Pat Powers on Scribd
If we’re only looking at the expenditures by this PAC (which probably should have been a ballot question committee), expenses clocked in at $26.03 per signature withdrawn. That’s kind of a high burn rate.
But, don’t forget that this petition signature withdrawal effort also cost State Representative Hansen the dignity of his office, since he had a disclosed conflict of interest in bringing the legislation to allow the attempt to pull signatures while being on the Life Defense Fund’s payroll.
Those are high expenses on both accounts for only managing 21 signatures.
Unable to prevent signatures from being put on the ballot. Unable to pull signatures off the ballot. Two strikes in quick succession.
If I were to guess, I would wager we’re going to see strike three from the Life Defense Fund in November.
I see Mr. Hansen also attended the John Dale School of Spending More of Other People’s Money for Worse Results
Worse results for RTL, yes. But worse for his own pocketbook? He’s doing just fine monetarily taking prolifers for a ride.
Was the school closed down and banned by the SDGOP but re-opened after the Wackadoodle takeover?
Love it. Especially later in the summer.
Looks like the representatives who voted NO had the most sense.
Young Mr. Hansen will indeed again bereft of satisfactions the insaner node of his brain craves.