Medical Cannabis Petition Fails; Seven Measures Go to Statewide Vote

As expected, the medical cannabis initiative has failed to make the ballot. Yesterday Secretary of State Shantel Krebs rejected the petition submitted by Angie Albonico, Melissa Mentele, and New Approach South Dakota asking for a statewide vote on legalizing the use of cannabis for medical purposes.

Secretary Krebs counted 15,157 signatures on the petition, 8.4% fewer than Mentele submitted on her organization’s unsuccessful 2015 medical cannabis petition. By rule, Secretary Krebs checked 701 signatures randomly sampled from the petition and found only 438 valid. That 37.53% error rate, the highest among the eight initiative petitions submitted last fall, translates into only 9,470 valid signatures, 4,401 short of the 13,871 required to put the measure on the ballot.

This disappointing result drives Angie Albonico out of ballot measures and politics in general:

I want to reiterate that the ONLY reason we didn’t make the ballot was that we did not have enough volunteers out circulating petitions. If we would have had more people actually out we would have well surpassed that number.

However, here we are. Another year that patients… mothers.. children.. fathers…..sisters…..brothers will have to go without a SAFE access for a SAFE medicinal option in South Dakota.

With that being said. This is me officially stepping down from anything political in SD. I will not be doing ANY other ballot measures. I refuse to sacrifice anymore time with my family for any political process in this state [Angie Albonico, Facebook post, 2018.04.15].

Melissa Mentele isn’t done with politics. I hear she’s away in California circulating ballot measure petitions.

Secretary Krebs has now cleared her desk of initiative petitions. Absent challenges, we get to vote on seven ballot measures this year (down from ten in 2016): three constitutional amendments placed on the ballot by the 2018 Legislature, two initiated laws placed on the ballot by Speaker G. Mark Mickelson, and two measures from non-legislative citizen groups. We vote on all measures but one (Amendment Y) on November 6.

Legislative Amendments:

1. Amendment Y: Marsy’s Fix (special vote on Primary Day, June 5).
2. Amendment X: Increase vote threshold to pass constitutional amendments from simple majority to 55%.
3. Amendment Z: restrict constitutional amendments to single subject.

Mickelson Initiatives:

1. Initiated Measure 24: ban contributions to ballot question committees from out-of-state donors.
2. Initiated Measure 25: raise taxes on tobacco to subsidize vo-tech tuition.

Citizen Initiatives:

1. Amendment W: IM 22 2.0, the voter-approved but Legislatively repealed Anti-Corruption Act, minus public campaign financing but plus initiative and referendum protections.
2. Initiated Measure 26: capping the price the state pays for prescription drugs at the prices contracted by the Veterans Administration.