Lawmakers advance a bill proponents say eases the burden on local election officials-but opponents say it comes at the expense of some candidate hopefuls seeking petition signatures.
House Bill 10-95 is in response to codified law passed by the Legislature last session that combined all the municipal, school and county elections to the same day in South Dakota. Many election officials testified to the House State Affairs Committee that the updated election schedule has created some inconsistencies in the dates between cities, schools and counties. Proponents say the bill creates consistency.
However, Kathy Glines, who’s the Harding County Auditor, said another issue is at stake this year.
“There’s a 99.99% chance we won’t meet the deadlines this year for the June election,” Glines said, adding that it was disturbing at the bill's initial hearing on Jan. 28.
This election cycle creates more challenges for election staff. Under current law, candidate hopefuls for statewide elections and state Legislature races must submit nominating petitions by the last Tuesday in March. This year there are five Tuesdays in March, and the deadline falls on March 31 and would give county auditors 15 days to have ballots in-hand ahead of absentee voting for the June primary. Good Friday and the Monday following Easter are during that timeframe as well, which the Secretary of State's Office said could create additional complications.
County auditors are mandated by law to have the ballots ready for absentee by a certain date. Thomas Oliva is the Hughes County Auditor and told the committee he's not entirely sure about what the penalties are for not reaching deadlines.
"It's came on before, but I really don't know unless somebody presses the issue against their auditor necessarily what kind of trouble we could into with that," Oliva said, responding to a question.
Rep. Rebecca Reimer brought HB 1095 to address the unique challenges the 2026 election poses. It changes the date to third Tuesday in March, up two weeks for 2026.
Some legislators say changing the filing date and chopping off a couple of weeks to gather signatures while efforts are already underway creates a problem. One such lawmaker is Rep. Jon Hansen.
“I just have real concerns about using this legislation via emergency clause to cut potential candidates off of circulating mid-circulation process,” Hansen said. “I think that can operate a real unfairness and injustice to people if that were to happen.”
Due to its emergency clause, it would take effect the moment the governor signs the bill. The Secretary of State's Office told the committee said it plans to issue a press release detailing the changes.
Hansen also mentioned the optics of passing the law.
"I know for a fact that there's nothing nefarious going on with this bill, but if we go in as incumbents and we pass this law in the middle of the petitioning process and we chop off two weeks' worth of petitioning, that could look really bad," Hansen said at the bill's first hearing. "It could look like we're shutting the door on potential competition, and I don't want to do that. I think that's a really bad perception we're putting out there."
He's said another solution could be limiting the absentee voting period to 30 days, opposed to the current 45-day period.
Others say the bill is needed to guarantee integrity in this election cycle. Rep. Erin Healy said she supports the bill, calling it a “hard” decision given the circumstances.
“I don’t think any single one of us is happy to be in this position where we have to vote on changing the timeline for nominating petitions. It’s not fun. We don’t like it,” Healy said. “But we have to be responsible, and we have to ensure that voters have, if you want to call it a product, a good product come April.”
The bill advances out of the House State Affairs Committee following a 7-5 vote. It heads to the House floor.
