In a reaffirmation of their commitment to direct democracy, South Dakota voters have rejected the two attacks on the initiative process placed on the ballot by Republican legislators.
Amendment L proposed to raise the popular-vote threshold for amending the state constitution from simple majority to 60%. Voters rejected L 42% to 58%. L was Republicans third try in eight years to change that constitutional threshold: in 2018, South Dakotans voted 46% to 54% against Amendment X, which sought a 55% amendment threshold; and in 2022, South Dakotans voted 33% to 67% against Amendment C, which sought a 60% threshold for amendments, initiated laws, and referred laws that would have increased taxes or fees or required spending more than $10 million. Perhaps the third time will charm legislators into acknowledging that South Dakotans like majority rule.
While Amendment L was a direct attack on the initiative process, Amendment I was another attempt to reverse the will of the voters expressed by initiative. Amendment I would have repealed Medicaid expansion in South Dakota if the federal government stopped covering 90% of the cost. South Dakotans approved Medicaid expansion via Amendment D in 2022 56% to 44%. The same percentage of voters showed up this year to say to the Legislature, “No, really, we meant what we said in 2022; leave Medicaid expansion alone!” Amendment I failed 44% to 56%.
South Dakotans approved the two other constitutional amendments requested by the Legislature. 62% of voters approved Amendment J, which rewords but makes no practical change to Article 7 Section 2’s requirement that voters be United States citizens. 61% of voters approved Amendment K, which creates a trust fund for unclaimed property, promising a little more interest income to the state.
South Dakotans didn’t show much enthusiasm for initiating or referring measures to a statewide vote this year. Initiative petitions to abolish property tax and protect direct democracy failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, as did an effort to refer Governor Rhoden’s property-tax/sales-tax swap. But South Dakotans still turned back the Legislature’s attempt to make direct democracy even harder and turn back one of the hard-won policy fruits of their directly democratic labor.