Media Coverage: The Voter Defense Association of South Dakota releases its 2025 Legislative Scorecard.
On Tuesday, April 29th, the Voter Defense Association released its 2025 Legislative Scorecard. We evaluated 51 separate votes on 12 pieces of legislation over the course of the 2025 legislative session in Pierre and assigned each State Senator and State Representative a grade based on their voting record. You can read the full report, including the methodology behind the scorecard and detailed information on each of the twelve bills, here.
Check out the media coverage on the scorecard below:
South Dakota Public Broadcasting
4/29/25: New political scorecard looks at South Dakota lawmakers on voting issues
”Matt Schweich is the President of VDA. He said though Democrats have traditionally voted more in favor of the organization’s beliefs, three Senate Republicans scored the highest.
‘We as an organization do not think that the Initiated Process should be a partisan issue. It’s a question of process and it’s a question of the Constitutional rights of the people of South Dakota,’ Schweich said. ‘It shouldn’t be a red or blue issue at all. And so, it’s very encouraging that the three top Senators are all Republicans, and that’s something we want to build on.’”
The Argus Leader
4/30/25: South Dakota House led 'attacks' on state's initiative process: Legislative scorecard
"‘Despite the fact that there were so many different attacks on the initiative process, only one serious one emerged from the session, there are quite a few legislators who are choosing to respect the initiative process when they have votes in front of them on bills that would that would undermine it,’ Matthew Schweich, president of VDASD, told the Argus Leader.”
Dakota News Now
5/1/25: Scorecard grades lawmakers’ friendliness to the initiative process
“Republican Aberdeen Senator Michael Rohl received an A+ grade for his efforts to protect the ballot initiative process; he said the idea that the initiative process needs restrictions holds little water.
‘We (the legislature) put four different initiatives on the ballot for 2026, so coming off a year where many politicians are saying we need to restrict the ballot process because voters are getting fatigued after having six on the ballot, we put four on the ballot before citizens had the chance to put one of theirs on the ballot,’ Rohl explained.”
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