an editorial by Dave Baumeister
In 1898, South Dakota became the first state to allow for its citizens to oversee the state legislature when it adopted the initiated measure and referendum process.
An initiated measure is when citizens circulate petitions to propose a law, and if it garnered enough signatures and a majority of the vote, it becomes law.
The referendum process made it possible for a majority of state voters to overturn laws passed by the legislature and signed by the governor.
There was never a rule that said, “for an initiated measure to pass, it must have 60 percent of the vote.” It was and is simple majority rule. And that has been the case in our state for well over a century.
We are sure that all of you have seen your mailboxes inundated with flyers from the “Vote Yes on Amendment C” people.
These flyers do nothing more than gaslight and throw out scare tactics, that “if you don’t vote Yes, all of the out of state interests will descend on South Dakota and your taxes will go up.”
However, these flyers never do anything to explain what the proposed Amendment C does, how it would raise taxes, or why it would be bad.
It is just something sent out by paternalistic legislators that want to scare people into giving them more power.
Amendment C was put on the ballot by South Dakota legislators who didn’t like the idea of the people of South Dakota trying to limit their power.
Here’s what it does. Currently, for the legislature to pass bills that affect taxes beyond a certain amount, they need a “supermajority,” or 60% of legislatures to vote in favor of it.
The idea behind this is that if 60% of legislators vote for something, the overall voters in the state would be less likely to go to the effort and expense of referring the law, as those efforts would probably be unsuccessful.
But Amendment C attempts to take away power from the electorate by holding them to the same 60% threshold for any statewide ballot initiatives.
And that means the state legislators, NOT THE MAJORITY OF SOUTH DAKOTANS, will have more power.
Keep in mind, that the legislature is just made up of just over one-tenth of 1% of the state’s population.
Bottom line: Voting “yes” on Amendment C would be giving 63 members of the legislator the same power as 531,000 South Dakotans. (Actually, if we only count 60 % of registered voters, that number drops to 348,000.)
In an era when trust in government is at an all-time low, can anyone really think this is a good idea?
The second thing that smacks of bad lawmaking is how the legislators placed this amendment on the PRIMARY ELECTION ballot, as opposed to the General Election ballot when more people go to the polls.
In our primaries, many people don’t (or can’t) vote, allowing for a 124-year tradition in the state to be changed by a minority of voters.
Many Democrats and Independents just won’t go to the polls, because they think there is nothing for them on which to vote.
After all, South Dakota does not have open primaries, Republicans don’t let Independents vote in their elections, and the Democrats don’t have any primaries to vote in.
But this is not a Republican/Democrat issue. This is not a conservative/liberal issue. THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL ISSUE OF ANY KIND!
This is all about some of the people in Pierre never wanting their authority challenged. And they are trying to make this happen in a very underhanded way.
We think newspaper readers are extremely intelligent folks, and we know that newspaper readers are much more likely to vote than the population at large.
So, remember, that in the South Dakota primary election this year, EVERYONE is eligible to vote, even if it is only on Amendment C. So, either plan to vote on Tuesday, June 7, or vote early/absentee right now.
And don’t forget, “power” is a finite resource. When we give a legislative body more power over us (as Amendment C does), there is a trade-off, since the power passed onto them is then taken away from the people.
