2025 Legislative Tracker
HJR 5003: 60% supermajority requirement
Status: Delivered to the Secretary of State.
HJR 5004: Increase in required signatures
Status: Tabled in House State Affairs
HJR 5006: Intervening General Election for failed initiatives
Status: Passed the House. Tabled in Senate State Affairs.
SJR 504: 2% signature distribution requirement
Status: Tabled in Senate State Affairs.
HB 1169: 5% signature distribution requirement
Status: Delivered to the Governor.
HB 1184: February petition filing deadline
Status: Delivered to the Governor.
HB 1256: Require a voter’s address on a petition to be “substantially the same” as the address listed on the voter’s registration form
Status: Delivered to the Governor.
HB 1267: Prohibit paid circulators
Status: Failed
Anti-Initiative Process Legislation:
Pro-Initiative Process Legislation:
The Voter Defense Association of South Dakota OPPOSES the following anti-initiative process legislation:
If approved by the Senate, HJR 5003 would place a question on the November 2026 ballot asking voters to increase the threshold for passing future constitutional amendments, whether proposed by the legislature or citizen-initiated, from 50% to 60%.
Passed House State Affairs Committee on January 17, 2025.
Passed the House 61-5 on January 22, 2025.
Referred to Senate State Affairs on January 29, 2025.
Passed in Senate State Affairs 6-1 on March 6, 2025.
Passed the Senate 29-4 on March 10, 2025.
Signed by the Speaker of the House.
Signed by the President of the Senate.
Delivered to the Secretary of State.
If approved by the Legislature, HJR 5004 would place a question on the November 2026 ballot asking voters to increase the signature threshold to place Constitutional Amendments on the ballot from 10% to 15% of the votes cast for Governor in the last Gubernatorial Election. HJR 5004 would also increase the signature threshold for statutory measures from 5% to 10%.
Tabled by the House State Affairs Committee on February 12, 2025.
If approved by the Legislature, HJR 5006 would place a question on the November 2026 ballot asking voters to require an intervening General Election before placing a previously failed initiative on the ballot again. For example, any ballot measure that failed in the November 2024 election would not be eligible to be on the ballot again until 2028 – current law would allow the initiative to be placed on the 2026 ballot.
Passed House State Affairs 11-2 on February 13, 2025.
Passed the House 62-8 on February 18, 2025.
Tabled in Senate State Affairs on March 5, 2025.
If approved by the Legislature, SJR 504 would place a question on the November 2026 ballot asking voters to require signatures for Constitutional Amendments to be collected from 2% of the total votes cast for Governor from each senate district – a signature geographic distribution requirement.
Tabled in Senate State Affairs on February 20, 2025.
HB 1169 is a signature distribution requirement similar to SJR 504, but it would enact the requirement in our codified laws rather than the Constitution, and would not be ultimately decided by the voters. If passed by the Legislature, HB 1169 would require signatures for Constitutional Amendments to be collected from at least 5% of the total votes cast for Governor in the last gubernatorial election from each senate district.
Passed House State Affairs 10-1 on February 10, 2025.
Passed the House 60-9 on February 13, 2025.
Passed in Senate State Affairs 7-1 on March 6, 2025.
Passed the Senate 19-15 on March 10, 2025.
Signed by the Speaker of the House.
Signed by the President of the Senate.
Delivered to the Governor.
If approved by the Legislature, HB 1184 would move up the deadline for filing petition signatures from the first Tuesday in May of a general election year to the first Tuesday in February.
Passed House State Affairs 11-1 on February 7, 2025.
Passed the House 59-9 on February 10, 2025.
Passed in Senate State Affairs 7-1 on March 5, 2025.
Passed the Senate 19-15 on March 10, 2025.
Signed by the Speaker of the House.
Signed by the President of the Senate.
Delivered to the Governor.
If approved by the Legislature, HB 1256 would require the Secretary of State to invalidate any signature on a petition if the voter’s address is not “substantially the same” as the address listed on their voter registration. Currently, a signature is valid if the signer is a registered voter of the same county they noted on the petition. This means that if a voter moves addresses within the same county, and remains a registered voter, their signature is valid. The current process works well – HB 1256 places unnecessary restrictions on the voter’s ballot initiative process.
Passed House State Affairs 12-1 on February 12, 2025.
Passed the House 61-9 on February 19, 2025.
Passed in Senate State Affairs 6-1 on March 5, 2025.
Passed the Senate 21-12 on March 10, 2025.
Signed by the Speaker of the House.
Signed by the President of the Senate.
Delivered to the Governor.
If approved by the Legislature, HB 1267 would ban the use of paid circulators. Ballot question campaigns typically use a combination of volunteer and paid circulators, while often relying heavily on the paid circulators.
Deferred to the 41st Legislative Day on February 24, 2025.
Smoked-out/revived on February 25, 2025.
Received a Do Not Pass recommendation from the House Judiciary Committee on February 25, 2025.
The Voter Defense Association of South Dakota SUPPORTS the following pro-initiative process legislation:
SB 91 would strengthen South Dakota’s ballot initiative process by increasing uniformity across petitions for initiated amendments to the Constitution and initiated measures. SB 91 would also allow petitions to be contained to a single sheet of standard 8.5x11 paper by moving the full text of the initiative to the handout (making it easier for voters to access the initiative text at their leisure). It also increases petition transparency for signers by requiring the title of the amendment/measure to be on the front and back sides of the petition.
Passed Senate State Affairs 9-0 on February 10, 2025.
SB 91B, which we support, passed the Senate 35-0 on February 12, 2025.
SB 91D, which we oppose, passed the House 70-0 on March 5, 2025.
Senate failed to concur SB 91D
SB 91F, which we support, passed the Senate on March 12, 2025.
SB 91F passed the House 70-0 on March 12, 2025.
SB 91F passed the Senate 32-3 on March 12, 2025.
Signed by the Speaker of the House.
Signed by the President of the Senate.
Delivered to the Governor.
SB 92 requires the director of the Legislative Research Council and the Secretary of State to review initiated measures for single-subject violations upon the sponsor’s filing of the language – a process that already applies to constitutional amendments. SB 92 would strengthen South Dakota’s ballot initiative process by ensuring that the single-subject review process is consistent across initiated constitutional amendments and initiated statutory measures. SB 92 would reduce the likelihood of future litigation related to South Dakota’s single-subject rule.
Passed Senate State Affairs 8-1 February 10, 2025.
Passed the Senate 34-0 on February 11, 2025.
Passed House State Affairs 12-0 on March 3, 2025.
Passed the House 70-0 on March 4, 2025.
Signed by the President.
Signed by the Speaker.
Delivered to the Governor.