The only person speaking yesterday against the Senate’s plan to ask voters to approve removing the lieutenant governor from the Senate’s Presidency was Retailers’ chief Nathan Sanderson. His opposition to Senate Joint Resolution 508 appears to come not from deep scholarship on constitutional checks and balances but from his aversion to letting voters speak up too much:
Only one opponent came forward: Nathan Sanderson, executive director of the South Dakota Retailers Association, who previously was a senior aide during Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s administration.
Sanderson said the Retailers board believes that the November ballot already will have questions for voters to decide and, if everything pending were to make the ballot, there could be as many as 13. He said his board believes that’s too many [Bob Mercer, “Should Lieutenant Governor Also Be Senate President?” KELO-TV, 2026.02.23].
Sanderson’s argument against prolific direct democracy didn’t stop Senate State Affairs from approving SJR 508 on a 9–0 vote, but they did drop the number of potential ballot measures to 11 by later Monday killing two other Legislative ballot measures: SJR 505, a proposal to have voters decide a property tax cap, and SJR 507, a ballot measure to pay for property tax relief by raising sales tax. Previously killed: HJR 5002 and SJR 506.
The four constitutional amendments already on the ballot were put there by the 2025 Legislature. The 2026 Legislature has proposed eight ballot measures, four of which are still pending (HJR 5001 on eminent domain and economic development, SJR 501 on Legislative term limits, SJR 504 on online sports betting, and SJR 508). Citizens are circulating three initiative petitions. So the most ballot measures South Dakotans may get to decide in 2026 is 11… unless the Legislature passes something really dumb that citizens refer to a vote.
Sanderson has two s’s, that’s one two many. Those English
/Scots ripped off the Nordic boys in the fifteenth century.
Just though you should know.
I hope legislators will spare us the whining and namecalling about too much “direct democracy.” Historically the Legislature forces more direct democracy via joint resolutions on the public than the public forces on itself through petitioning initiative and referencum. Maybe if the Legislature had to collect the required 10% of signatures, like the public is forced to, some thought would be would be put into whether they want to actually force people to vote on nonsense like this.
This hissy fit about the President of the Senate seems to be a tad stupid.
Direct democracy is bad. It is very bad.