Last updated on 2015-03-30
Ready to help refer Senate Bill 69 and Senate Bill 177 to a public vote? I sure am! Here are the petition forms and my handy guide to petitioning:
Feel free to print and share as many copies of these petitions as you wish. But you must follow these rules:
- Not one signature goes on the petitions until Tuesday morning, March 31. Referenda can’t circulate until the Legislature adjourns, and the legislature is in session Monday for veto day. Monday, we wait. Tuesday, we go to work.
- Every sheet has two sides. Print those PDFs front and back, title and eight signature lines on the front, twelve signature lines and notarized circulator’s oath on the back. Secretary Krebs will throw out any sheets without printed matter on both sides.
- Update 2015.03.30 07:24 CDT: If you’re having trouble with the small margins cutting off the title, fiddle with the Print settings: perhaps reduce the scale to 98%, or reduce your print margins to zero. (Let me know what works best, so we can share that information!)
- To circulate, you must be 18 or older and a South Dakota resident. Young people, I’d love to have your help, especially to explain why the youth minimum wage is bad policy. You can be our best advocates. But if you’re petitioning, you’ve got to bring an adult.
- To sign, you must be a registered South Dakota voter. Every circulator should ask every potential signer, “Are you a registered South Dakota voter?”
- Circulators eyeball every signature. No signature goes on a petition sheet unless you are in the room, next to the signer, watching the ink hit the paper.
- Don’t sign your own petition sheet. I want your signature to count! But your name can never appear on any sheet twice—i.e., you can’t sign one of the twenty blanks and sign the circulator’s oath on the same sheet. If you want to sign, get a friend to circulate with you, and sign your friend’s sheet.
Read the petition guide for more details. As the week progresses, once I’ve actually set up the bank accounts, we’ll talk about how you can send money to support the referenda.I may even get ambitious and set up a separate website (or at least a subpage here on Dakota Free Press) to coordinate our efforts.
But for now, the goal is to get these petitions to as many willing circulators and signers as possible, be on the streets bright and early Tuesday morning, and let everyone know we’re going to work to save democracy. Download, print, and sign, sign, sign!
What about ink color? Is blue required or just recommended?
Cory, you got tired and are in a hurry!!!! AT the heading of your guide sheet you have the date as 1015 not 2015 and maybe you should have the year of 2015 after the date of when the petitions have to be turned into the SOS !!!!!!!
Blue? No! Print the sheets in black and white. People may sign in any legible ink; there is no statute on what color pen they use.
Thanks, Rollin! I’ve fixed that heading. (I will be tired and in a hurry for the next 90 days. :-D )
To save democracy you rilly need to rouse the rabble and get them to vote out wingnuts and vote in their betters. :)
I need to figure out how to get a petition signed while I am home from school this weekend. Anyone going to be circulating around Sioux Falls this weekend?
My understanding is that red ink, and shades thereof, don’t copy well. While copy-ability not a requirement, it would probably be a good idea to avoid red shades if possible. Be sure to carry an arm load of pens. Pencils are not allowed, are they?
Go get ’em SD petition carriers! You’re my heroes!
Anything that writes is okay for a petition signature.
The voice behind the petitions. http://listen.sdpb.org/post/effort-started-put-two-sd-senate-bills-ballot?nopop=1