Press Release

Contact: Luanne Napton, South Dakota Resources Coalition (605) 693-4298
Jeanne Koster, S.D. Peace & Justice Center (605) 882-2822

Group Works To Preserve Voting Rights

On July 14, 2005, a new coalition named Alliance For Our Future announced that they have begun circulating a petition to amend wording in an existing state law.

The Save Our Vote initiative clarifies and affirms a voting right that has been under challenge. The new wording dispels all doubt that citizens have a right to refer county conditional use permits and variances to a vote of local people. Passage of the measure would still leave a local referendum difficult to accomplish, however, because the Save Our Vote initiative does not change existing stringent requirements to qualify a referendum for a local ballot.

To date, citizens in four counties have collected the required number of petition signatures in the designated time period, but were denied the right to put their issue on the local ballot. These citizens were forced to sue to assert their right to vote. In two cases, the court ruled that the people did have the right to refer county conditional use permits. The other two cases are still pending. This initiative is meant to solve the problem so that it will not have to be taken to court in every county.

The initiated measure would also solve a problem for those seeking conditional use permits and variances, who are at times frustrated by commission inaction.

It would require county commissions to act within 30 days on conditional use permit and variance requests.

Circulators need to obtain more than 17,000 signatures in order to put the issue on the November 2006 ballot, but are optimistic about their ability to do that. “People are usually eager to sign a petition that will protect their voting rights,” said Luanne Napton of South Dakota Resources Coalition, one of the organizations that is a part of Alliance For Our Future.

“This is not a new right we are asking for,” said Jeanne Koster of South Dakota Peace & Justice Center, another organization in the Alliance For Our Future. “This is a right we have always had, but without making that very clear, we are in danger of losing it.”