Democratic Legislative Leaders Respond to Attacks on the Ballot Measure Process

Democratic Legislative Leaders Respond to Attacks on the Ballot Measure Process

PIERRE, S.D. – At their weekly press conference today, State Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Billie Sutton of Burke and State House Democratic Leader Spence Hawley of Brookings responded to the continuing attacks on the ballot measure process and the defeat of several pieces of such legislation in the past week.

“There’s been dozens of pieces of legislation introduced by our friends across the aisle attacking the ballot measure process this Session,” Hawley said. “We’re glad some of the worst pieces of legislation – like the legislation requiring signatures from 5% of voters in two-thirds of State Senate districts for ballot measure petitions, and to end the people’s right to introduce constitutional amendment – were defeated in the House this past week, but they never should have been introduced. If our friends across the aisle want to do away with the ballot measure system, they should just say so, and introduce that bill instead of going through this process of trying to chip away piece by piece.”

Sutton said this type of legislation is distracting the Legislature from more important work it should be doing.

“We were the first state to adopt the citizen initiative process, all the way back in the early days of our state,” Sutton said. “The ability to put measures on the ballot and allow the people to vote directly on state law is something South Dakotans hold dear. Instead of introducing legislation attacking the people’s voice and wasting countless hours on debate about reducing the power of the people, our friends across the aisle should work with us to confront the urgent issues facing our state like workforce development, growing our economy so it works for all South Dakotans, and cleaning up state government.”

Hawley and Sutton said that while Democrats are open to making the process better, and more transparent, they will stand against any attempt to make it harder for citizens to make their voices heard through the ballot measure process.

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