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!