1. A petition circulator is a
person of at least eighteen
years of age. (Effective 7-1-07 the circulator must
also be a resident of the state of South Dakota.)
2. The petition
circulator must personally witness each signature on the
petition being circulated. The petition's verification must be
completed following circulation and must include the
circulator's printed name, residence address, city, state,
complete date and be signed
under oath before a South Dakota notary public or other officer authorized to
administer oaths.
3. Each
petition signer must be a registered voter in the state of South
Dakota in the jurisdiction for which the petition is circulated
(SDCL 12-6-8).
4. Signers must sign
their names as they are registered
to vote or as they usually sign their names.
5. The
signer's printed name must also appear.
6. Each
signature line must show a complete residence address.
This can be street and house number or rural route and box
number in addition to the city or town. Zip codes are
optional.
If the signer is a
resident of a second or third class municipality, a post office
box number may be used in lieu of a street address. Second and
third class municipalities are those with less than 5000
population. They would include all municipalities except the
following which are first class municipalities:
Aberdeen, Brandon, Brookings,
Huron, Madison, Mitchell, Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls,
Spearfish, Sturgis, Vermillion, Watertown and Yankton.
If the signer does not have a residence
address or post office box number, a description of the
residence location must be provided.
7. Each signature line
must show the month, day and year it was signed. (Effective
7-1-07 only the month and day are required.)
8. Numbers to
designate the month are permissible. Abbreviations
commonly used are also acceptable.
9. The county of
the signer's voter registration must be included.
10. The date,
address, county of registration, and printed name may be added
by the circulator prior to the petition being filed. Ditto
marks may not be used.
11. If photocopies
are made of the originally signed petition sheet for
circulation, the original petition sheet must be submitted with
the photocopied sheets.
12. Each petition sheet
must be a self-contained sheet with the heading, declaration of
candidacy, instructions to signers, signature lines and
circulator's verification on a single sheet.
13.
Circulators for statewide ballot measures cannot be employed,
rewarded or compensated based on the number of registered voters
who signed the petitions. (Effective 7-1-07)
14. Circulators for statewide
ballot measures must make a reasonable inquiry of each signer to
determine that each signer is a qualified voter of the state and
county indicated on the signature line. (Effective 7-1-07)
15. Circulators for statewide
ballot measures must state under oath that no statute regarding
petition circulation was knowingly violated. (Effective
7-1-07)
16. The text to be
circulated on any initiative or constitutional amendment
petition must be submitted to the director of the legislative
research council who will within 15 days provide written
comments on the measure to the sponsors and the secretary of
state (SDCL
12-13-25). This requirement does not apply to referred laws.
17. The full text of any petition to be circulated to put a
question on the general election ballot complete with names and
addresses of the petition sponsors and a short title that will
be used by the petition sponsors during the circulation process shall be filed with the
Secretary of State following receipt of written comments from
the legislative research council and prior to circulation for
signatures (SDCL
2-1-6.2). No signatures obtained before that filing date
will be counted. (Effective 7-1-07)
18. All sections of any completed petition shall be filed in
the Secretary of State's office simultaneously together with a
sworn affidavit prescribed by the State Board of Elections
signed by two-thirds of the sponsors (SDCL
2-1-6.2).
19. A completed petition for an initiated constitutional
amendment must be filed by November 5, 2007.
20. A petition containing signatures collected within one year
after filing of the full text for an initiated measure must be
filed by April 1, 2008.
21. A completed petition for a referred law must be filed
within ninety days of adjournment of the legislative session in
which the measure was passed.