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Municipal and School Information

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2025 Municipal Election Calendar

2025 School Election Calendar

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Absentee Voting Process for Cities and Schools

Precinct Manual

School Opt Out Election Timeline

Tax Limitation and Opt Out Information for all taxing districts EXCEPT for school districts

Opt Out Information for Schools

City and School Combined Election Information

Forms of Notices

How to Circulate Municipal and County Initiatives and Referendums

Municipal Recall Election Guideline

Municipal & School Recount Manual 

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ADA Checklist for Polling Places

Kinship Chart

Voters in school districts are limited to specific issues they may use the referendum process for. To refer a school board decision to the vote of the people, these are the issues that may be referred:

Nominating Petitions

WARNING: State law requires that each petition sheet be self-contained. This means that the petition heading, instructions to signers, signature lines and circulator's verification must all be printed on each sheet prior to circulation. The sheet must be printed on front and back. You CANNOT tape, staple or glue the front and back sides together. You CANNOT include sheets with signature lines only.  If you have any questions about how to correctly prepare a petition sheet, please call the elections department at 773-3537.

Learn how to circulate a Municipal Nominating Petition
*Signature requirements can be found at SDCL 9-13-9

  • First and Second Class cities
    • At large candidates need a minimum of 5% of the registered voters of the municipality based upon the number of registered voters recorded by the county auditor on the second Tuesday of January of the year of the election. No more than 50 signatures required.
    • Alderman (Wards) candidates need a minimum of 5% of the registered voters of the ward based upon the number of registered voters recorded by the county auditor on the second Tuesday of January of the year of the election. No more than 50 signatures required.
    • Voters may sign as many petitions as there are positions. 
  • Third class cities
    • At large candidates need not less than three signatures of registered voters within the municipality.
    • Alderman (Wards) candidates need not less than three signatures of registered voters of the ward.
    • Voters may sign as many petitions as they choose.

Municipal Nominating petition in Legal Size
Municipal Nominating petition in Letter Size

Learn how to circulate a School Board Nominating Petition
*A minimum of 20 signatures is required (SDCL 13-7-6)

School Board Nominating petition in Legal Size
School Board Nominating petition in Letter Size

Candidate Nominating Petition Validation Checklist

  • Cities and Schools - please note that you are required to check voter registration on nominating petitions.  ARSD: 05:02:08:00
  • Cities ands Schools - please email elections@state.sd.us to gain access to the city and school look-up site. This site is only for school business managers and city finance officers.

2024 - 2025 Municipal / School Election Workshops

Webinar PDFs for 2024-2025 are currently being updated but the PDFs from the previous election cycle are available for reference below. Please note there could be state law changes.

We encourage new Finance Officer’s and Business Manager’s to make sure they attend all the webinars. The information is listed below.

  • We will host two webinars on each date. The webinar times are 9:30 am and 2:30 pm (CT).

Webinar 1: Thursday, December 5, 2024 
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM CT / 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM CT

  • Election Types and Date (don’t forget to set your election date)
  • Combining elections vs. holding elections on the same day
  • Election Calendar (appoint your election boards sooner rather than later)
  • Precinct and Election Boards
  • Public Notices
  • We will walk through our website and the Legislative Research Council’s site if time allows

Webinar 2: Thursday, December 12, 2024
9:30 AM - 10:40 AM CT / 2:30 PM - 3:40 PM CT

  • Candidate Eligibility Requirements
  • Petitions - Forms, Deadlines, Signature Requirements (change for cities) and Counting Signatures (walk through the petition checklist).  New petition challenge law.
  • What if no one files?
  • Financial Interest Statements (these must be filed every year for applicable cities and schools)
  • Vacancies - What Creates a Vacancy and How to Fill It
  • Campaign Finance (for applicable cities and schools) - Who is Required to File, Restrictions, Disclaimers and Forms

Webinar 3: Wednesday, March 5, 2025
9:30 AM - 10:10 AM CT / 2:30 PM - 3:10 PM CT

  • Ballot Preparation
  • Who Can Vote - Voter Registration and Residency

Webinar 4: Wednesday, March 12, 2025
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM CT / 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM CT

  • Absentee Voting - Application, Voting In-Person or by Mail, UOCAVA Voters (we will walk through our handout)

Webinar 5: Wednesday, March 19, 2025
9:30 AM - 11:00 AM CT / 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM CT

  • Election Worker Training - you may use this to train your election workers
    • We will walk through the Precinct Manual as a guide on “What to do on Election Day.”

Webinar 6: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM CT / 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM CT

  • What to ask your county auditor for (Voter registration list, schools make sure to ask for all the counties your district covers etc.)
  • What should you, as the person in charge of the election, do on Election Day?
  • Counting, Canvassing and Recounting - Provisional Ballots, Duties of Canvassers and Recount Process

Reference Webinars from 2023-2024

Webinar 1

Webinar 2

Webinar 3

Webinar 4

Webinar 5

Webinar 6

Helpful Links

South Dakota Municipal League

Associated School Boards of South Dakota

South Dakota County Auditors

South Dakota School Business Managers