One of the arguments Speaker and gubernatorial candidate Jon Hansen (R-25/Dell Rapids) has made in his ongoing war against initiative and referendum is that he wants to prevent voter fatigue. Hansen and some of his compatriots in the Legislature have alleged that they hear voters complaining about how long their ballots are and how tired they get exercising their intellects and their constitutional rights.
As usual, Jon Hansen appears not to mean the things he says. After all, as of right now, voters will have four ballot questions to consider at the 2026 general election. All four are constitutional amendments placed on the ballot by the Legislature in its 2025 Session. All four—HJR 5001, HJR 5003, SJR 503, and SJR 505—received Speaker Hansen’s affirmative vote. Hansen himself co-sponsored HJR 5001.
No one else in South Dakota is proposing four initiatives for the 2026 ballot. Defender of democracy Rick Weiland ran four amendments up the LRC flagpole last December, but he chose to circulate petitions for just two of them. Anti-government activists Julie Frye-Mueller and Mike Mueller may try putting a poorly calculated tax swap amendment on the ballot, but they may not receive the Attorney General’s required paperwork in time to meet the November 3 deadline for launching a constitutional amendment petition drive. The sponsors of two pending initiatives haven’t made any public move to start petitioning and thus appear to have lost interest in putting their questions to a vote.
Citizens have proposed seven initiatives for the ballot; only Weiland’s two and the Frye-Muellers’ one appear to have active campaigns. The 2025 Legislature considered eleven ballot questions and approved four for a statewide vote.
Thus, Speaker Hansen and the Legislature are already filling the 2026 ballot with more questions than citizens will place by initiative… and Hansen and his Club still have an entire 2026 Session during which to propose more measures for the ballot. If Republicans like Hansen were really worried about ballot questions tiring voters out, they wouldn’t put so many questions on the ballot for voters to consider.