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Potentially 16 Ballot Questions, More Likely 13 in November

However many of the remaining five initiatives join the three currently certified for the ballot, we could still have a fuller slate of ballot measures than the ten measures we had in 2016. The 2018 Legislature has proposed fourteen constitutional amendments this Session. Six have been killed in committee votes (indicated below). Three have passed their first chamber, one has passed its first committee, and four get their first committee hearing on Wednesday, February 21:

Bill Title Cmte1 Floor1 Cmte2 Floor2
HJR 1001 Raise legislator salaries and peg to one fifth of median income 9–3 38–26 Senate State Affairs 2/21  
HJR 1002 Give Legislature authority to set method of filling Legislative vacancies 4–7      
HJR 1004 Revise crime victims amendment 11–0  House pending    
HJR 1005 Make hunting, fishing, and trapping a constitutional right 1–11      
HJR 1006 Impose single-subject rule on initiated amendments House State Affairs 2/21      
HJR 1007 Take away voters’ right to initiate constitutional amendments House State Affairs 2/21      
HJR 1008 Give Legislature veto power over voter-approved initiated measures House State Affairs 2/21      
HJR 1009 Create independent redistricting commission 2–11      
HJR 1010 Change legislator terms and term limits from four two-year terms to two four-year terms 5–7      
SJR 1 Raise vote threshold for passage of constitutional amendment at general election from 50%+1 to 55% 6–2 26–9 House State Affairs pending  
SJR 2 Expand “militia” eligibility to all adults 7–2 29–3 House State Affairs pending  
SJR 4 Create unclaimed property trust fund 1–8      
SJR 5 Cap annual increase in state general fund appropriations 2–6      
SJR 9 Allow gambling in Yankton Senate Local Government 2/21    

If all eight of the remaining amendments survive both chambers, and if the Secretary of State certifies all five remaining initiative petitions, we could have sixteen ballot questions on our November ballot. The more likely number is thirteen: all but HJR 1007 (sacrificed as a compromise to allow HJR 1008 onto the ballot) will pass the Legislature, and the medical cannabis and redistricting petitions will turn out to have too few signatures to qualify. If that speculation holds, our ballot will consist of Amendments W, X, Y, Z, A (letters recycle, per SDCL 12-13-4!), B, C, D, and E, followed by Initiated Measures 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28.

Of course, the numbering of initiatives depends on whether we refer any of the Legislature’s foolish bills to a vote… and if we referred everything foolish, we could probably get our ballot measures into the triple digits!

2 Comments

  1. Debbo 2018-02-17 20:25

    It looks like the legislature favors Power for themselves at the expense of the citizens they are rumored to represent. I wonder why they don’t like a democratic form of government, nor trust the choices of the citizenry?

  2. grudznick 2018-02-18 14:59

    It appears the #VNOE committee will need to meet soon to change our name to #VNOM

    There are some really good measures initiated in there. Really good ones. The public is too stupid to figure most of this out, so they may just VNOE especially after the hoodwinking foisted on them by the big, dark, out-of-state money, but when we get state dollars to push the measures from the legislatures that will fix things a lot. Measures from the legislatures can be advertised with state dollars. We need a new law bill. Ms. Frye-Mueller, please get on that for me.

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