A new front opens over South Dakota ballot initiatives: withdrawing signatures from petitions

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has signed a bill to allow signers of ballot initiative petitions to revoke their signatures — a move opponents decry as a jab at direct democracy and a proposed abortion rights initiative, which would enable voters to protect abortion rights in the state constitution.

The Republican governor signed the bill on Friday. The Republican-led Legislature overwhelmingly passed the bill brought by Republican Rep. Jon Hansen, who leads a group seeking to defeat the proposed initiative. Hansen said he brought the bill to counter misleading or fraudulent initiative tactics, alleging “multiple violations of our laws regarding circulation.”

“Inducing somebody into signing a petition through misleading information or fraud, that’s not democracy. That’s fraud,” Hansen said in an interview last month. “This upholds the ideal of democracy, and that is people deciding, one or the other, based on the truth of the matter.”

Republican lawmakers have grumbled about South Dakota’s initiative process, including Medicaid expansion, which voters approved in 2022.

Democrats tabbed Hansen’s bill as “changing the rules in the middle of the game,” and called it open to potential abuse, with sufficient laws already on the books to ensure initiatives are run properly.

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