In more good news for ballot question fans, House Bill 1005 passed the Senate yesterday.
HB 1005 passed in much better form than it appeared in the hopper two months ago. The bill originally rigged the ballot language on referred measures in favor of our overreaching Legislature, making “Yes” mean “No” and “No” mean “Yes.” Rep. Leslie Heinemann (R-8/Flandreau) actually made HB 1005 worse in House State Affairs, making the ballot state that a “Yes” vote would “repeal” the referred act of the Legislature. That statement would have been absolutely false: referral stops the act from becoming law, so on Election Day, it cannot be repealed.
Rep. Kent Peterson (R-19/Salem) smartly fixed this confusing and false language with an amendment on the House floor on January 24. HB 1005 enjoyed smooth sailing the rest of the way, passing through Senate State Affairs last week unanimously and through the Senate yesterday 30–3. (Senators Wiik, Russell, and Nelson made no speeches explaining their lonely nays.)
HB 1005 has a broader purpose than simply clarifying referendum language. The intent is to make uniform the recitations that appear on the ballot for all ballot measures. Instead of language that the Attorney General might rig (and Senator Bolin cited the friendly language toward Amendment S on the 2016 ballot that may have helped Marsy’s Law become an abomination in our state constitution), all ballot measures—referred laws, initiated laws, and initiated constitutional amendments—will now have non-specific, content-free recitations:
- The recitation for each referred law shall state “Vote ‘Yes’ to allow the Act of the Legislature to become law” and “Vote ‘No’ to reject the Act of the Legislature”.
- The recitation for an initiated measure shall state “Vote ‘Yes’ to adopt the initiated measure” and “Vote ‘No’ to leave South Dakota law as it is”.
- The recitation for an initiated amendment to the Constitution shall state “Vote ‘Yes’ to adopt the amendment” and “Vote ‘No’ to leave the Constitution as it is”.
The Senate made no changes to the amended House version, so HB 1005 heads to the Governor’s desk. Don’t forget, Governor Daugaard: Yes means Yes, No means No. Sign the bill, and keep referendum language clear!