Media Coverage: “South Dakota and Louisiana Voters Let Lawmakers Have It”
The American Prospect covered the South Dakota Legislature’s recent attacks on the ballot initiative process.
”You see more legislatures in rural Western states that were traditionally Republican become very one-sided Republican,” says Matthew Schweich, president of the Voter Defense Association of South Dakota, which produced a stinging report on the proposal. “One-party control unleashes anti-initiative ideas that might otherwise be moderated in a more balanced political system.”
“Ten or 20 years ago in South Dakota there were norms: respect the initiative process and leave it be,” says Schweich. “The good news is that voters are not eager to get rid of their initiative rights. Opponents of the initiative process would rather stop these ballot initiatives in the first place rather than fight them post-enactment because that’s even more politically unpopular.”