The Board of Elections showed its usefulness last November in shooting down one of Secretary of State Monae Johnson’s worse ideas: replacing nominating petitions with filing fees. Secretary Johnson floated filing fees as one of 17 proposals for election legislation for the 2026 Session. This grossly undemocratic idea met with uniform opposition from the other six members of the Board of Elections at their November meeting:
#9 – An Act to allow a candidate to qualify to have the candidate’s name on the ballot through the payment of a fee: Deputy Secretary of State Tom Deadrick explained how other states (e.g., Kansas) currently use a filing fee system for ballot access. McGregor asked for clarification on the contests that the proposed filing fee system would apply to and was told that it would apply to all contests, except in cases where candidates are required to be nominated by a convention. Hoffman and Alberty expressed opposition to the idea of “pay to play” ballot access and were joined by the rest of the State Board of Elections [Board of Elections, draft minutes, 2025.11.18].
Thanks to that solid opposition from the Board of Elections, the Secretary of State’s office did not include filing fees in place of petitions among its seven submissions (Senate Bills 28–34) to the 2026 Legislature.
Heather Baxter is likely to be the Earth haters’ nominee for SDSOS if a majority of the SDGOP delegates are in the far white wing of that party.