Release: First Ballot Question Validated for 2020 General Election

Pat Powers

FIRST BALLOT QUESTION VALIDATED FOR 2020 GENERAL ELECTION

PIERRE – Secretary of State Steve Barnett announced the petition submitted for an initiated measure on legalizing marijuana for medical use was validated and filed by his office today. It will be titled Initiated Measure 26 and appear on the 2020 General Election ballot on November 3, 2020.

An initiated measure currently requires 16,961 valid signatures in order to qualify for the ballot. “Per South Dakota Codified Law § 2-1-16, our office conducted a random sample of the petition signatures and found 74.65 percent to be valid,” stated Secretary Barnett. Based on the results of the random sample, 25,524 signatures were deemed valid.

Upon the filing of a ballot measure, any citizen may challenge the Secretary of State’s validation of that measure in accordance with South Dakota Codified Law § 2-1-17.1. Citizens challenging the validation must submit an original, signed affidavit to the Office of the Secretary of State within 30 days of validation. Electronic submissions of affidavits will not be accepted. For this measure, the deadline to file a challenge is Monday, January 20, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. central time.

Ballot question petitions are reviewed by the Office of the Secretary of State in the order received. Petitions for one remaining ballot question were submitted by the November 4, 2019 deadline and are under review by the office. The South Dakota Legislature has the ability to include constitutional amendments on the 2020 Ballot and South Dakota citizens have the ability to submit a referendum petition concerning laws passed during the 2020 Legislative Session.

Detailed information on specific 2020 Ballot Questions may be found on the Secretary of State’s website at https://sdsos.gov/elections-voting/upcoming-elections/general-information/2020-ballot- questions.aspx.

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(Editor’s note – Clearly they brought in out of state people, as they didn’t have anywhere near this level of accuracy the last time they tried to run a measure like this. So, now the focus is on how poorly written the measure is. -PP)

16 thoughts on “Release: First Ballot Question Validated for 2020 General Election”

  1. Pat, been a little bit of a frustrating day today, trying to decipher the Petition story. First I get the “official” news release from the SOS office. Clearly a bureaucrat’s attempt to CYA with a nice description of the good work the SOS did in auditing the petitions. But, as I reader, I have no idea what the Petition Issue is all about!

    Then I see the SD War College is covering the story…………..I pantingly pull up the story, to realize it’s simply a re-hash of the SOS release. Again, won’t tell me what the issue is all about.

    Other than that………….a regular reader, and usually not so crabby.
    Merry Christmas.

  3. and it is poorly written!

    It is a recreational bill hiding as medical….minimum 3 plants….no maximum

    VOTE NO!

  5. I hope you guys are prepared for it passing. There is a lot of support on both sides of the aisle. It could even drive younger people to the polls and that could create some interesting results in other races. It’s going to be an interesting election season.

    1. I too believe there’s support from all types and ages of voters, and am also leaning towards it passing. Some I’ve spoken with don’t use it, but know someone dealing with a painful disease, PTSD or have a child with reoccurring seizures and they want them to have a more natural treatment option.

    2. Here’s the interesting thing, while I don’t think marijuana will drive people to the polls, I do think Donald Trump’s most active constituents are actually very pro cannabis, which means his success may be bad for actual conservatives in SD.

      Think about it, white, non college educated, blue collar people ages 22-45, the construction workers, the roofers, the fence builders, all these guys are big time trump supporters that havent cared about politics before, but also have been smoking marijuana most of their adult lives.

      Very interesting that this made the ballot this year in particular…

  6. Haha, oh heck! Love the fact that the higher accuracy count warrants you claiming there must have been out-of-state gatherers. You would’ve – and like have! – said the same thing had it been a garbage number. There’s no winning, huh? Face it, that’s just the favored argument against measures you don’t like. And geez, didn’t they pass a whole slew of laws in 2018 to finally put an end to this out-of-state scourge?! Your efforts to stymie the direct democracy process fail at every turn and, if anything, simply highlight the high level of disdain you have towards your fellow South Dakotan voters. To the polls!

    2. and they were begging for a few dollars to make county fairs and then poof out of state comes in and they make it….this is not a south Dakota but a big money out of state effort

  8. Legal pot isn’t something South Dakota needs. Every time I visit I’m struck with a sense that something is missing. It’s that all the liberals have long moved away. SD operates under a diminished culture and that’s how the majority wants it. That majority isn’t ready for the change. Cannabis products will be legal in Minnesota, soon. 70% of SD residents live within a hundred miles of the border. Why bother? Change and innovation aren’t strong things with SD voters. VNOE

    1. Why bother if it’ll be legal in Minnesota soon? Because South Dakota’s asinine possessiin law includes your bloodstream, so you can get prosecuted here for using in a state where it’s legal. Because peolle don’t want “driving back from Minnesota” to count as probable cause for the cops to pull them over. Because there is not now, never has been, and never will be a valid reason for marijuana use to be illegal, nasty and unpleasant as it is.

  9. Been smokin every day since………… Sorry can’t remember. I used to be balding and my hair has grown back on my head since I started smokin. It’s a miracle plant.

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