Speaking of the primary, Jon Hansen and Dusty Johnson both say they’ve submitted their nominating petitions with far more than the 2,171 signatures needed to qualify for the primary ballot. Yet the Secretary of State does not list Hansen, Johnson, or anyone else as qualifying for the ballot for any statewide office.
The SOS has apparently certified all sorts of Legislative and county candidate petitions for the partisan primary and for 22 independents for various offices and 6 non-partisans for conservation district seats who go straight to the general election ballot. Those petitions only require a few dozen signatures. Add in the precinct committee petitions and some other local races, and the SOS has posted over a thousand candidates (!).
But the SOS hasn’t had time to process the few petitions received for the biggest offices on the ballot? Come on, Team Monae—let’s see those big petition certifications! The fate of the Republic hangs in the balance!
Update 17:15 CDT: I get home from work and find SOS Johnson finally got around to certifying Dusty Johnson’s petition and placing him on the candidate list… 25 days after he submitted his signatures. Johnson says he submitted “over 5,000 signatures”. Under SDCL 12-1-36 and ARSD 5:02:08:00.05, the SOS only had to verify a random sample consisting of less than 13% of those signatures.
Republic, I like the sound of the word. It makes me tight in the throat. Just like the cashews I eat. Almonds too.
Really, Ms. Johnson has so much work to do for the DOJ, giving them everything she has on all South Dakota voters. She’s just got sooo much to do. Don’t worry, just make sure you’ve got your birth certificate and your marriage license ladies. We boys just need our birth certificate. I lost my passport so there you go too.