Government & Elections

Changes the rules for putting local government decisions to a public vote.

This bill extends the time period for filing referendum petitions against local government ordinances and resolutions from 20 days to 45 days. It applies to county, municipal, and school district ordinances/resolutions. The bill also standardizes the signature requirement at 5% of registered voters and updates publication timing requirements to align with the new 45-day referendum period.

Addresses various issues facing South Dakota.

This bill creates a non-substantive statement that 'The Legislature shall address issues facing South Dakota.' It appears to be either a placeholder bill or potentially defective legislation with no actual legal effect or requirements.

Changes how casino revenue is distributed.

This bill modifies the distribution formula for gaming revenues from the Gaming Commission fund. It changes the percentage allocation to the state general fund (decreasing from 70% to 20% over time from 2026-2029) and to the City of Deadwood's historic restoration fund (increasing from 10% to 60% over the same period). The percentages for municipalities and school districts in Lawrence County remain unchanged at 10% each.

Creates a fund to reduce homeowner property taxes.

This bill adds a general statement that 'The Legislature shall promote the future success and development of South Dakota' to state law. It appears to be purely aspirational language with no substantive legal changes, requirements, or mandates.

Requires state agencies to check with aviation officials before buying or selling state aircraft.

This bill requires state agencies to consult with the Aeronautics Commission when purchasing, transferring, or disposing of state-owned and operated aircraft, including unmanned aircraft systems. The commission must provide advice and expertise in the form of a written report to the Governor and the requesting agency.

Changes how mail-in ballots are processed.

This bill modifies South Dakota's absentee ballot processing procedures. Key changes include: allowing the person in charge of elections (rather than just counties) to create absentee ballot precincts; permitting absentee ballot counting boards to begin processing ballots the day before election day and on election day prior to poll closing; allowing automatic tabulation of absentee ballots before polls close (but prohibiting display of vote totals); requiring pollbooks for absentee ballot precincts; and updating various procedural requirements for ballot handling, validation, and counting.

Requires proof of citizenship to register to vote.

This bill requires individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote using documentation such as driver's licenses issued after July 1, 2025 (that verify citizenship), tribal ID cards, birth certificates, U.S. passports, or certificates of naturalization. Individuals who cannot provide citizenship documentation are designated as 'federal voters' and can only vote in federal elections (president, U.S. senator, U.S. representative). Current registered voters are grandfathered in until July 1, 2026, but must provide citizenship proof if they move to a different county within the state.

proposing and submitting to the voters at the next general election, amendments to the Constitution of the State of South Dakota, removing the lieutenant governor as presiding officer of the Senate.

Requires publishing election results for local party committee positions.

This bill requires county auditors to forward information about precinct committeeman and committeewoman candidates and election results to the secretary of state, who must then post this information on their website. The information includes candidate names upon filing, election results from primary elections, and names of those automatically elected without opposition.

Bans political candidates from accepting money from foreign nationals.

This bill amends campaign finance law to prohibit candidates and political committees from accepting contributions or loans from foreign nationals (as defined in federal law). It increases penalties from a Class 2 misdemeanor to a Class 1 misdemeanor for first violations, and from Class 1 misdemeanor to Class 6 felony for subsequent offenses within a calendar year. The bill includes an emergency clause for immediate implementation.

Gives legislators more control over state agency rule-making.

This bill adds new legislative oversight requirements for agency rulemaking by: (1) creating a new definition of 'major rule' (rules with over $1 million in compliance costs over 5 years), (2) requiring agencies to prepare regulatory impact analyses for all proposed permanent rules that detail whether the rule is a major rule, (3) requiring code counsel to advise agencies whether proposed rules are major rules, and (4) requiring regulatory impact analyses to be provided to legislative committees and published on state websites as part of the rulemaking process.

Changes how voter registration lists are made public.

This bill changes how South Dakota publishes voter registration files. Instead of weekly updates, the secretary of state must post the complete statewide voter registration file weekly by 11:59 PM central time each Monday. It also requires maintaining and publishing a rolling five-year historical archive of the complete voter registration file, updated weekly. The bill clarifies that restrictions on commercial use and internet posting of voter data do not apply to these official publications by the secretary of state.

Changes how long election materials must be kept before they can be destroyed.

This bill extends the ballot retention period for municipal, nonfederal state, and school district elections from 60 days to 22 months before election officials may destroy voted ballots, pollbooks, and other election materials. The bill standardizes the retention period across all election types to match the existing 22-month federal election requirement.

Clarifies how to properly fill out a ballot.

This bill changes the requirement for marking optical scan ballots from allowing voters to use a pencil or other marking instrument to requiring voters to use specifically a black ink ballpoint pen.

Bans state employees from working for companies they gave contracts to.

This bill creates new restrictions on state employees and officers who handle government contracts. It prohibits them from being employed by organizations that received contracts they approved, awarded, or administered - for one year if the contract was under $1 million, or two years if over $1 million. It also updates existing conflict of interest rules with clearer language and procedures for exceptions.

Expands who can use the state's cybersecurity protection services.

This bill expands South Dakota's cybersecurity services initiative by changing the eligible entities from just counties and municipalities to also include nonprofit utilities and utilities operated by political subdivisions. The bill maintains the $7 million appropriation to the Attorney General's office but broadens the scope of who can receive cybersecurity infrastructure and technology protection services.

Bans data centers from keeping certain agreements secret.

This bill prohibits state agencies and political subdivisions from entering into confidential or nondisclosure agreements with non-governmental entities, private persons, or public-private businesses concerning data center construction, development, or location. It requires that any such agreements be treated as public records.

Updates rules for how city governments operate.

This bill revises municipal government procedures including: clarifying the process for filling mayoral vacancies through aldermen appointment; establishing succession rules for mayor pro tempore positions; updating eligibility requirements for municipal officers to require 3-month residency and qualified voter status; revising appointment procedures for municipal officers; updating oath and bonding requirements for appointed officers; and clarifying when vacancies occur and removal procedures for municipal officers.

Bans economic development board members from profiting from board decisions.

This bill creates a new conflict of interest prohibition for Board of Economic Development members, preventing them from having ownership interests in or serving on boards of entities that receive awards, disbursements, expenditures, or grants from the Board of Economic Development.

Requires interpreters for people who need them in state agency hearings.

This bill requires state agencies to provide interpreter or translator services for parties who need language assistance in administrative contested case proceedings. The agency conducting the proceeding must procure and pay for these services from their operating budget. Additionally, the prevailing party in such proceedings can recover their own interpreter/translator costs that weren't covered by the agency.

Changes the timeline for counting votes after an election.

This bill changes the timing requirements for election canvasses. It sets the local election canvass to occur at 9 a.m. on the first Tuesday following the election (instead of within six calendar days), and sets the state canvass to occur at 9 a.m. central time on the second Tuesday following the election (instead of within seven days). It also makes minor administrative language changes regarding who conducts the canvass and adjournment procedures.

Changes when cities can hold their elections.

This bill makes technical amendments to municipal election procedures by changing terminology from 'annual municipal elections' to 'regular municipal elections' throughout various statutes. It also makes minor procedural changes to election timing requirements, allows boards of trustees to extend terms from 3 to 4 years for even-year elections, and updates language for filling municipal office vacancies including mayors and aldermen.

Extends deadline for Cultural Heritage Center renovation funds.

This bill extends the reversion date for unused appropriated funds from June 30, 2026 to June 30, 2028 for moneys allocated to the Department of Education to improve and renovate the Cultural Heritage Center. The bill is effective beginning June 29, 2026.

Allows the state to invest in Bitcoin.

This bill allows the State of South Dakota to invest up to 10% of its public investment funds in Bitcoin. It establishes definitions for Bitcoin and related digital asset terms, requires Bitcoin investments to be held through secure custody solutions or qualified custodians, and sets detailed security requirements for custody solutions including private key control, hardware security, geographic diversification, and regular auditing.

Changes rules for submitting candidate petitions.

This bill modifies filing deadlines and procedures for nominating petitions across multiple election contexts. It changes municipal candidate filing deadlines from 70 days before election to specific dates (second Tuesday of March for June elections, second Tuesday of August for November elections), extends registered mail receipt deadlines to March 31st and August 31st respectively, modifies candidate withdrawal procedures, updates primary election petition filing deadlines from last Tuesday of March to second Tuesday of March, and adjusts school board candidate petition filing requirements.

Creates a task force to study how AI affects the state.

This bill creates a taskforce to study the impact of artificial intelligence systems on South Dakota. The taskforce includes 17 members from various industries (healthcare, banking, retail, manufacturing, technology), education, government officials, and appointees from the Governor, Supreme Court Chief Justice, and Board of Regents. The taskforce must report findings and recommendations by December 1, 2028, and is dissolved after delivering the report. The Act becomes effective January 1, 2027.

urging the people of the state of South Dakota to seek the Lord Most High for His healing presence and mercy upon South Dakota.

Changes rules about what government records can be made public.

This bill modifies public access to voter registration records by expanding privacy protections for certain officials. It adds new protections for personally identifiable information (home addresses, phone numbers, and personal email addresses) for elected/appointed statewide, legislative, and federal officials, current and retired judges, and law enforcement officers. The bill restructures existing privacy protections that previously only applied to judicial officers' home addresses and extends these protections to both current county records and the statewide historical archive maintained by the Secretary of State. It also includes a provision stating that violations do not create a private right of action.

Updates rules about public access to government records.

This bill makes minor technical updates to South Dakota's open records law, including grammatical changes (replacing 'which' with 'that'), punctuation corrections, reorganizing text structure for clarity, and updating federal statute citations with effective dates. The substantive exemptions from open records disclosure remain unchanged - the bill only improves readability and organization of existing exemptions.

Allows voters to recall county commissioners.

This bill creates a new process allowing voters to recall county commissioners from office. It establishes petition requirements (15% of district voters or 5% of county voters), specifies allowable grounds for removal (corruption, crimes in office, drunkenness, gross incompetency, gross partiality, malfeasance, misconduct, nonfeasance, oppression, and theft), and sets procedures for special elections to remove and replace commissioners within 60 days of petition submission.

Clarifies when agencies must disclose financial impacts of new rules.

This bill modifies the administrative rulemaking process by requiring agencies to provide financial resource information to code counsel (in addition to the Interim Rules Review Committee) when proposing rules that increase fees. The financial information includes fund balances, receipts, and disbursements for the last two fiscal years plus projections for current and next fiscal year. This information must now be filed earlier in the rulemaking process - at least 20 days before public hearings rather than just before committee review.

Bans paying people to collect petition signatures.

This bill prohibits the use of paid petition circulators for ballot measures in South Dakota. It removes definitions for 'paid circulator' and 'volunteer circulator' from state law, adds a new definition of 'compensate' that broadly covers any payment or inducement for petition circulation (excluding legitimate expense reimbursement), and requires petition circulators to provide handouts stating they are not being compensated for their work. The bill effectively bans any form of compensation for petition circulation activities.

Requires ballot measures to say whether they came from citizens or lawmakers.

This bill requires ballot questions to disclose whether they were proposed by the Legislature or by citizen initiative. It adds disclosure language to attorney general statements that appear on ballots, specifying whether constitutional amendments or referred laws came from the Legislature versus citizen-initiated petitions.

Eliminates the Digital Dakota Network and its funding.

This bill repeals several sections of law that created and governed the Digital Dakota Network, an Office of Digital Dakota Network within the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications. The bill removes the statutory framework for this telecommunications network while transferring some administrative functions to the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications, including rule-making authority for network management and telecommunications services.

honoring the life and achievements of the late Charlie Kirk.