Legislative Update 1/31/25 – By: South Dakota Canvassing Group

The South Dakota 2025 legislative session is off to a great start! We are happy to report a noticeable vibe shift. The halls of the Capitol are much less hostile and decorum has returned to committee hearings.

There are hundreds of bills being considered addressing school choice, property taxes, property rights, v@ccines, chemtrails, defending the guard, seatbelts, fluoride in the water and more. We care about all issues, but we remain focused on our priority issue = FREE, FAIR, TRANSPARENT AND SECURE ELECTIONS.

Our group members across the state have been busy bees tracking bills in sophisticated spreadsheets as they drop every day. Just keeping tabs on all the bills is a full-time job. We usually have less than 48 hours to get the word out once a bill is scheduled to line up people to testify, make travel arrangements when required, and write up our own speeches. So far, we have been successful and you all have stepped up in a BIG WAY! Thank you!

Others have been making graphics and manning social media channels; and still more are behind the scenes teaching people new to this how to contact the committees, direct their comments to the contents of a bill, and how to testify remotely.

It is an amazing thing to see people from all areas of the state working diligently together for the better of the Republic. What a blessing it is to be a part of this movement. From comments we have heard already, your emails and texts have made an impact.

Thanks to your “hundreds of emails” on HB1066, (the residency bill) House leadership has stated that fixing the residency issue is important and that they need to get it right, and that it needs to be fixe this year!! No more kicking the can down the road. Due to your engagement, the residency issue is heading in the right direction to protect the bona fide residents of South Dakota from dilution of the vote by unverified, non-compliant voters.

Here is yet another article brought to our attention revealing the extent of the problem. South Dakota is putting itself in legal jeopardy by allowing this scheme to continue. It is possible other states may consider it an attempt to defraud their states of income, and all the evidence is there to prove it.

Also due to your engagement, SB48 is still being held and has not been heard in committee. SB48, which is the Secretary of State’s election residency bill, is a 7 page monstrosity, which, in it’s current form would never pass committee just because it covers so many statutes in one bill. Amendments to SB48 and the sister bill SB73 addressing drivers licensing, included attempts to legalize out of stater’s PMB addresses like this:

Even though SB48 is Sen. Mehlhaff’s bill, all negotiations and communications have been with Deputy SOS Tom Diedrick and Sen. Amber Hulse. Agreements have been made, and we will be sure to let you know if anyone acts in bad faith.

HB1066, which passed out of House State Affairs, is being sent back to the committee so they can consider an amendment, before sending it back to the house floor. It is now a clean, streamlined bill that will hopefully pass committee again. You can listen to the committee hearing HERE.

HB1062 passed the House State Affairs committee with 9 Ayes, 3 Nays. It then passed the House Floor with a vote of 37-31. This bill will allow the citizens access to the publicly available voter file free of charge.

Rick Weible assembled a color coded map of the United States with the voter roll costs by state. https://uscase.org/2025-voter-roll-costs Did you know South Dakota is one of the most expensive states to purchase this data?

Rep. Weisgram’s HB1073 also passed, ironically. These bills have conflicting language; 1073 would remove the email and phone number from the publicly available voter rolls. This is a step in the wrong direction for election transparency and voter verifiability. In most states, this data, along with the full year of birth is public information.

Senator John Carley’s bill, SB68, requiring any voter to be a United States Citizen, passed the Senate State Affairs committee 5-4. Over 20 South Dakota citizens, including several military veterans, lined up to testify in support. The lone opponent from the ACLU with she/her/hers pronouns was worried about discrimination. We’ll just leave that there. This bill should be voted on Monday by the full Senate. Contact your Senator and urge them to Pass SB68 with a felony penalty for enforcement. Currently, misdemeanors are not enforceable in South Dakota election law.

Senator Taffy Howard’s SJR503 would amend the Constitution to ensure only Citizens vote. The ACLU rep withdrew her opposition testimony so there were NO opponents.

UP NEXT WEEK:

Sen. Tom Pischke’s – SB103 – will be heard Monday in Senate State Affairs, which would ban vote centers. Vote Centers allow for an undetermined amount of ballots, lack of local oversight and local control, and requires internet connected e-poll pads. E-poll pads add significant expense, and are hackable, internet connected, real-time data monitoring devices which connect to FirstNet through their Verizon connection.

Midwest Seeds
Without e-pollpads, harder to cheat w/ mail-in ballots
Learn more about YOUR efforts… https://projectminnesota.com/local…

Listen now

Also, we believe vote centers are unconstitutional in South Dakota.

Each elector who qualified to vote within a precinct shall be entitled to vote in that precinct until he establishes another voting residence.

SOUTH DAKOTA CONSTITUTION: ARTICLE VII ELECTIONS AND RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE

§ 1. Right to vote. Elections shall be free and equal, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.
§ 2. Voter qualification. Every United States citizen eighteen years of age or older who has met all residency and registration requirements shall be entitled to vote in all elections and upon all questions submitted to the voters of the state unless disqualified by law for mental incompetence or the conviction of a felony. The Legislature may by law establish reasonable requirements to insure the integrity of the vote.

Each elector who qualified to vote within a precinct shall be entitled to vote in that precinct until he establishes another voting residence. An elector shall never lose his residency for voting solely by reason of his absence from the state.

§ 3. Elections. The Legislature shall by law define residence for voting purposes, insure secrecy in voting and provide for the registration of voters, absentee voting, the administration of elections, the nomination of candidates and the voting rights of those serving in the armed forces.

Things move very quickly and we will do the best we can to keep you updated. Please tune into our social media channels for the latest calls to action on a daily basis. Currently we can only keep up with updating these channels:

Follow us on X : https://x.com/SDCanvass

Follow us on Telegram: https://t.me/sdcanvasschannel

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082599407985

Also be sure to follow:

https://www.facebook.com/rushmorerepublican

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550796991938

https://www.rushmorerepublican.com/

THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT!

We appreciate any donations, no matter how small, as we travel out to Pierre and back many times during session.

https://give.cornerstone.cc/sdcanvassing/checkout

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