House Bill 1087

Background: House Bill 1087 would prohibit paid petition circulators.

Our Stance: The ACLU of South Dakota opposes House Bill 1087.

This bill is unconstitutional because it limits core political speech. This bill is bad policy because, if passed, is likely to result in an expensive lawsuit. Banning paid petition circulators restricts ballot measure sponsors’ access to the most effective and fundamental avenue of political discourse, direct one-on-one communication with voters.

South Dakotans are well-versed in direct democracy. House Bill 1087 is designed to make it more difficult to collect enough signatures to place new initiatives on the ballot. South Dakotans only use the citizen initiative process if the state legislature is not accountable to the voters. Our legislators should be doing everything they can to encourage people to participate in democracy, not try to thwart it.