Secretary of State Shantel Krebs received two referendum petitions this morning at the State Capitol. On behalf of thousands of South Dakotans, I submitted petitions to put Senate Bill 69 (the Incumbent Protection Plan) and Senate Bill 177 (the youth minimum wage) to a public vote.
Thank you, friends and neighbors, who helped gather signatures across the state to put these two anti-voter, anti-democracy bills to a vote!
Here are the key numbers:
- Signatures necessary to place referred measures on the ballot: 13,871.
- Signatures on SB 69 petition: 16,715.
- Signatures on SB 177 petition: 20,077.
- Error rate SB 69 petition can withstand: 17.0%.
- Error rate SB 177 petition can withstand: 30.9%.
Each petition must pass two tests to get Secretary Krebs’s certification. First, the Secretary’s staff will verify that the submitted sheets contain at least 13,871 facially complete signatures, with address, town, signing date, and county of registration. The Secretary will also verify that each sheet containing those signatures includes a complete and notarized circulator’s oath. If the Secretary finds that many complete and notarized signatures (and she will!), she then turns to the 5% random simple prescribed by statute. Staff will select 5% of the submitted signatures (836 for SB 69; 1,004 for SB 177) and check whether those signatories are indeed registered voters. The Secretary will then multiply that error rate by the total number of submitted signatures to determine whether each petition has met the 13,871 threshold.
No statute dictates a deadline for completing this certification process. However, Secretary Krebs says she is determined to complete the petition-certification process by 11:59 p.m. CDT Tuesday, June 30. She wants to ensure that, if the referendum petitions do indeed win certification, that information is known in time to stop the laws from taking effect on July 1. (Kudos to the Secretary for her willingness to put in overtime on her first ballot-measure certification!)
These two petitions will be the only two on Secretary Krebs’s work table today and tomorrow. Veterans advocate Ted Fowler informs me that the effort to refer House Bill 1179 did not gather enough signatures to make the ballot.
So stay tuned for the big news tomorrow on whether we will get to vote on the anti-democratic SB 69 and SB 177!
Thank you Cory!
Thanks, Cory. Yeoman effort, most appreciated.
Cory, I also wish to offer my thanks. I know it must have been a lot of work to accomplish this.
Kudos to Cory, and props to Secretary Krebs for the push to finish the certification by the 30th!
That 17% cushion should be adequate. Pat yourself on the back two times and have a Pabst Blue Ribbon for each pat. You deserve it.
I also would like to join the round of applause for Cory, Shirley Moore, Ellee Spawn, and all those that contributed to this effort.
Congrats on your efforts Cory….
I as well throw in my congratulations to you Cory and all those people who worked hard to do this. Glad to see people doing things the RIGHT way and not taking shorts cuts.
Congratulations to all who worked on this and thanks to Cory and the whole motley crew. South Dakota will be a better place for all if these referenda get a majority vote in the next election.
I want to echo the words of those who’ve already commented. This is exactly how genuine democracy works. Congratulations South Dakotans!
Hit the tip jar for Cory. I’m doing that as I speak! How is it this former Kennedy Democrat and Cory the former Nixon?Reagan? PUB, can now be so yoked on SB69? Can Cory Brown possibly be that opaque? Help me out! Thanks, Cory.
Les asks:
>“Can Cory Brown possibly be that opaque?”
Corey Brown’s biggest problem isn’t a lack of intelligence or a lack of hard work. It’s a lack of humility.
Thanks to everyone who circulated and signed.
Good luck!!
“”Corey Brown’s biggest problem isn’t a lack of intelligence or a lack of hard work. It’s a lack of humility.”’ Well, obviously he’s not working as hard as he once was, Kurt. That aside, I don’t think a humble person is necessarily one working for the best interests of the people either. Opaque was said to mean he’s so pretentious he doesn’t care if he’s seen through or not, so I guess we basically agree.
Cory Brown could have been governor or??? over a vast majority of the young guns in line. Hasta La Vista Mr Brown.
I’m proud to have helped circulate the petitions in Charles Mix County. I filled up 7 full pages on each measure. It may not appear to be a big number, but there aren’t a lot of people in this county either.
Carrie, way to represent! Good work in Charles Mix! Every signature matters.
And Les, thank you for the vote of support… and for helping keep the server lit and revving!