Petition Effort to Take Vision Fund to Ballot Fails to Secure Needed Valid Signatures

PETITION EFFORT TO TAKE VISION FUND TO BALLOT FAILS TO SECURE NEEDED NUMBER OF VALID SIGNATURES

City Finance Office finds nearly 500 signatures are in violations of various violations of state statutes/rules

RAPID CITY, SD—After a thorough review, City Finance Director Daniel Ainslie indicates a local petition effort to refer recent City Council actions regarding the City’s Vision Fund to a public vote has not secured the required number of valid signatures to place the item on the November ballot.

            A total of 479 petition signatures were invalidated due to violations of various state statutes and administrative rules governing petitions. 

            A local group, ‘Liberty and Justice For All’, organized the petition effort in recent weeks submitting 2,975 signatures by the Friday, July 12 deadline. The number of submitted signatures initiated the signature validation process, which was conducted by the City’s Finance Office.  A total of 2,707 valid signatures – representing five percent of the City’s registered voters – were needed to refer the item to the November election.

            After the review process, only 2.496 signatures could be validated – 211 signatures short of the number needed.

            “The Finance Office staff completed a very thorough and detailed review of the petition signatures. At the end of the review, nearly five hundred signatures were set aside for various reasons, all due to infractions of state statutes and administrative rules,” said Ainslie.

            Ainslie said there was no record of voter registration for many of the petition signers, while others were registered outside Rapid City.  In some instances, necessary information for signers had been crossed out. There were instances of the circulator and notary not verifying the same sheet of paper as the signatories, missing information and the signatory living outside the city limits.

            “We advise anyone wishing to run for office or who plans to initiate a petition drive to be aware of the often necessity to collect a significant cushion of signatures,” Ainslie said.  “It’s not uncommon for groups and candidates to submit 10-25 percent more than the number of signatures needed as it’s common to have signatures set aside for a variety of reasons.”

            City Attorney Joel Landeen said his staff researched and provided the Finance Office with a number of state statutes involving petitions, signatures and the petition process.  These statutes and rules include:

• Signatory must be a resident of Rapid City – SDCL 9-20-9
• Signatory must be a registered voter in Rapid City – SDCL 9-20-9
• Same individual signed multiple times (only 1 signature is valid) – SDCL 9-20-8
• Signed after circulator completed the verification – ARSD 5:02:08:00.01(2)(b)
• Resident address does not include a street and house number or a rural route and box number and the town – ARSD 5:02:08:00.01(2)(c)
• The date of signing, including the month and day, is not indicated – ARSD 5:02:08:00.01(2)(d)
• The signer’s name is not printed and legible - ARSD 5:02:08:00.01(2)(e)
• The signer’s county of voter registration is not provided - ARSD 5:02:08:00.01(2)(f)
• Form of petition does not meet the requirements established by the State of South Dakota – ARSD 5:02:08:00.01(1)(a)
• Circulator’s verification is not completed or is improperly completed – ARSD 5:02:08:00.01(1)(c)
• Circulator’s verification was signed by more than one circulator – ARSD 5:02:08:00.01(1)(e)

        The petition sought to refer last month’s decision by the Rapid City Council to modify the Vision Fund ordinances to the voters of Rapid City.