Republicans hate ballot measures. But last week 30 House Republicans contradicted themselves and voted for more local ballot measures.
House Bill 1323 would give local activists more time to circulate petitions to put newly approved local ordinances to a public vote. Prime sponsor Representative Aaron Aylward (R-6/Harrisburg) originally wanted to extend the time for collecting signatures from 20 days to 45. To get HB 1323 through the House, Aylward evidently had to compromise and amend the extended petition deadline to 30 days.
But that’s still 50% more time to circulate local referendum petitions. In January, Sioux Falls petitioners collected just over 5,000 signatures in 20 days, short of the 6,704 they needed to place a data center rezoning ordinance on the ballot. At the rate they were going, even in the pen-freezing cold, HB 1323’s 30-day circulation period would have allowed those activists to collect 7,500 signatures, enough to refer the ordinance to a vote.
50% more time to circulate petitions—Republicans hated when I won that extended time for statewide initiative petitions in federal court, hated it so much that just last year that they passed 2025 House Bill 1184 to try taking 90 days of petition time away again and impose an earlier deadline in the middle of winter. They failed, because their February deadline was unconstitutional and my friend Rick Weiland got a federal judge to say so, and petitioners still have until May 5 to collect signatures for statewide initiatives.
Maybe that court beating brought some Republicans to democratic Jesus, but last Friday, 30 Republicans who voted last year to take away petition time voted this year to give 50% more petition time for local referenda:
| District | Party | Representative | 2025 HB 1184 |
2026 HB 1323 |
| 10 | Republican | Andera, Bobbi L. | Yea | Yea |
| 18 | Republican | Auch, Julie | Yea | Yea |
| 6 | Republican | Aylward, Aaron | Yea | Yea |
| 34 | Republican | Baxter, Heather | Yea | Yea |
| 5 | Republican | Garcia, Josephine | Yea | Yea |
| 30 | Republican | Goodwin, Tim | Yea | Yea |
| 23 | Republican | Gosch, Spencer | Yea | Yea |
| 22 | Republican | Greenfield, Lana J. | Yea | Yea |
| 25 | Republican | Hansen, Jon | Yea | Yea |
| 13 | Republican | Hughes, John | Yea | Yea |
| 28A | Republican | Hunt, Jana | Yea | Yea |
| 28B | Republican | Ismay, Travis | Yea | Yea |
| 33 | Republican | Jensen, Phil | Yea | Yea |
| 4 | Republican | Jordan, Dylan C. | Yea | Yea |
| 29 | Republican | Jorgenson, Terri | Yea | Yea |
| 17 | Republican | Kassin, Chris | Yea | Yea |
| 14 | Republican | Kayser, Tony | Yea | Yea |
| 16 | Republican | Lems, Karla J. | Yea | Yea |
| 1 | Republican | Manhart, Logan | Yea | Yea |
| 27 | Republican | May, Liz M. | Yea | Yea |
| 3 | Republican | Novstrup, Al | Yea | Yea |
| 31 | Republican | Odenbach, Scott | Yea | Yea |
| 21 | Republican | Overweg, Marty | Yea | Yea |
| 35 | Republican | Randolph, Tony | Yea | Yea |
| 29 | Republican | Rice, Kathy | Yea | Yea |
| 3 | Republican | Schaefbauer, Brandei | Yea | Yea |
| 9 | Republican | Schwans, Tesa | Yea | Yea |
| 2 | Republican | Sjaarda, John | Yea | Yea |
| 9 | Republican | Soye, Bethany | Yea | Yea |
| 8 | Republican | Walburg, Tim | Yea | Yea |
| 12 | Republican | Arlint, Amber | Yea | Nay |
| 19 | Republican | Bahmuller, Jessica | Yea | Nay |
| 34 | Republican | Derby, Mike | Yea | Nay |
| 32 | Republican | Duffy, Steve | Yea | Nay |
| 31 | Republican | Fitzgerald, Mary J. | Yea | Nay |
| 21 | Republican | Halverson, Jim | Yea | Nay |
| 7 | Republican | Heermann, Mellissa | Yea | Nay |
| 12 | Republican | Jamison, Greg | Yea | Nay |
| 13 | Republican | Kolbeck, Jack R. | Yea | Nay |
| 2 | Republican | Kull, David | Yea | Nay |
| 30 | Republican | Ladner, Trish | Yea | Nay |
| 33 | Republican | Massie, Curt | Yea | Nay |
| 23 | Republican | Moore, Scott | Yea | Nay |
| 24 | Republican | Mortenson, Will | Yea | Nay |
| 11 | Republican | Mulder, Brian | Yea | Nay |
| 19 | Republican | Peterson, Drew | Yea | Nay |
| 26B | Republican | Reimer, Rebecca | Yea | Nay |
| 8 | Republican | Reisch, Tim | Yea | Nay |
| 4 | Republican | Roe, Kent | Yea | Nay |
| 17 | Republican | Shorma, William | Yea | Nay |
| 18 | Republican | Stevens, Mike | Yea | Nay |
| 22 | Republican | Van Diepen, Kevin | Yea | Nay |
| 11 | Republican | Weems, Keri K. | Yea | Nay |
| 24 | Republican | Weisgram, Mike | Yea | Nay |
| 20 | Republican | Bathke, Jeff | Yea | Excused |
| 25 | Republican | Heinemann, Leslie J. | Yea | Excused |
| 35 | Republican | Mulally, Tina L. | Yea | Excused |
| 1 | Republican | Reder, Christopher | Yea | |
| 16 | Republican | Vasgaard, Richard | Yea | |
| 26A | Democratic | Emery, Eric | Nay | Yea |
| 10 | Democratic | Healy, Erin | Nay | Yea |
| 15 | Democratic | Muckey, Erik | Nay | Yea |
| 27 | Republican | Pourier, Peri | Nay | Yea |
| 32 | Democratic | Uhre-Balk, Nicole | Nay | Yea |
| 15 | Democratic | Wittman, Kadyn | Nay | Yea |
| 7 | Republican | DeGroot, Roger | Nay | Nay |
| 14 | Republican | Rehfeldt, Taylor | Nay | Nay |
| 5 | Republican | Roby, Matt | Nay | Nay |
| 20 | Republican | Nolz, Kaley | Excused | Yea |
| 6 | Republican | Czmowski, Tim | Yea | |
| 16 | Republican | Shubeck, John | Yea | |
| 1 | Republican | Fosness, Nick | Nay | |
| Yea | 59 | 39 | ||
| Nay | 9 | 28 | ||
| Excused | 1 | 3 |
Among the self-contradicting Republicans was the prime sponsor of last year’s circulation-shortening bill, Speaker Jon Hansen (R-24/Dell Rapids).
Maintaining a consistent position were 24 Republicans who wanted less statewide petitioning time last year and oppose longer local petitioning time this year. Also consistent: all 6 House Democrats, who support people power and thus opposed shortening statewide petition time last and supported extending local petition time this year.
Curiously, there are three Republicans who voted nay on both 2025 HB 1184 and 2026 HB 1323. Reps. DeGroot, Rehfeldt, and Roby were the only Republicans to resist Speaker Hansen’s attempt to impose a February deadline on statewide initiatives, perhaps because they read case law in 2025 and recognized Hansen was violating the First Amendment and setting the state up for another embarrassing loss in court but this year saw no reason to give local petitioners more time to promulgate democracy and check the authority of city councils and county commissions.
Senate Republicans will now get their chance to check their consistency on direct democracy as HB 1323 heads to Senate State Affairs. Maybe more Republicans will realize the ballot questions aren’t that bad.
Well, great. The initiative and referendum are for citizens without regard to political ideology. I’ve been trying to communicate this to conservatives over the last couple decades since many of them got caught up in the Republican war on democracy. I told them there will come a time when you will want to bring some issue up for a public vote. And now we see with recent issues (carbon pipeline, liberty land, data centers) that political ideology often does not divide us on some issues. The recent Sioux Falls opt out petition had mostly conservative petitioners, but they brought forward the issue of a very short (20 day) petitioning window as being unfair. I agree. I would have been on the other side of that vote, but I think they should have a right to bring it up to a vote of the public.
Republicans contradicting themselves! Say it ain’t so. Certainly not singer Jon?
What will the Dell Rapidians think of that. Move him to Baltic or Renner or Crooks.
Donald, we do have trouble convincing conservatives to embrace initiative and referendum on principle. Is there any chance that we can at least get them to support the process (later petition deadlines, easier signature requirements, less red tape) by recognizing their self-interest? I’ll take allies whatever way I can get them. :-)
Conservative and moderate Republicans were very involved in all of our initiative/referendum campaigns in the 80s and 90s. We worked with some ultra-conservative ranchers/farmers one various issues, and found them easy to work with on issues we agreed on. I think broad-based coalition broke down a bit in the late 1990s and was pretty well gone in the early 2000s. That when the first anti-initiative legislation was able to pass. Before that, we had beaten all attempts to mess with the initiative. Now I see that some issues (like carbon pipelines, eminent domain and data centers) seem to unite conservatives and progrsssives, and even some moderates. It’s especially grating on people when issues involve the elites/legislators being so arrogant that they piss off everybody. So, I’m thinking this might be a time when there will be less successful attacks on petitioned ballot measures, and maybe a way to roll back some of the up-front bureaucracy.
I think its a matter of finding the right issues that people with various views can work together on. That’s not to say that you can manufacture those issues, but that the issues start bubbling up from the grassroots.
People have a vague understanding of “principles” and the way certain laws hinder their rights unless they have some practical experience. Just petition circulation makes people invested in their cause and in the overall principals behind the initiative/referendum. So, that’s my take.