A bill seeking to add provisions for challenging South Dakota voters’ eligibility based on citizenship advances from the Senate State Affairs committee.
Non-U.S. citizens are not allowed to vote in South Dakota elections. That policy has been in place since statehood.
According to Deputy Secretary of State Tom Deadrick, this bill’s only goal is to allow public challenges to something that’s already illegal.
“It does one thing — adds to the list of things that can be challenged as to a voter is, whether or not that person is a United States citizen,” Deadrick said.
It advanced from the committee with a do-pass recommendation on Wednesday.
Opposition questions the bill’s utility and potential consequences. Ellie Bailey is a lobbyist for the South Dakota Advocacy Network for Women. She said it’s a do-nothing bill.
“You’ll see there are numerous provisions that already exist in the law to ensure the accuracy of our voting rules," Bailey said. "It says voter registration form of somebody who’s registering to vote, that they declare they are a United States citizen under penalty of perjury. This bill is unnecessary, and we ask that you oppose this bill.”
These challenges could be made by any South Dakotan and would need to be issued 90 days prior to an election.
Sioux Falls Democratic Sen. Liz Larson worries about potential downstream consequences of this kind of policy.
“It just seems too nefarious to me," Larson said. "Who gets the right, and on what grounds can someone challenge someone as being a citizen? I just see a lot of problems there. I am shocked by what is going on in Minnesota, it’s just a horrible situation over there. To have those issues of people challenging citizenship for other people — it just comes with so much baggage.”
For example, a community of US citizens that speak English as a second language could face stiffer, more frequent challenges to their right to the ballot box. Larson said this could make those communities less likely to vote and make the Legislature less representative.