South Dakota
Dakotans for Health threatens lawsuit over signature withdrawal bill
The group sponsoring a constitutional amendment to expand South Dakota abortion rights said it will likely file a lawsuit if legislators pass a bill allowing petitioners to withdraw signatures that already have been certified for the ballot.
“I can’t speculate about whether the bill will pass or not,” said Rapid City lawyer Jim Leach, who represents Dakotans for Health, a grassroots organization that pushes for progressive policy through petition efforts. “I can say that if it does pass, there’s certainly a substantial possibility of legal action.”
At issue is House Bill 1244, which would change South Dakota’s ballot initiative process by allowing an individual who signed a petition to withdraw their signature by sending a written notification to the Secretary of State’s office. This could occur after the petition effort has been validated but is still eligible to be challenged through the Secretary of State or court appeal.
The bill, which has an emergency clause allowing it to take effect immediately, passed the House State Affairs Committee on Feb. 14 by a vote of 11-1.
If successful, the legislation would make South Dakota one of five states – along with California, Idaho, Utah and Washington – with a codified process for revocation of petition signatures. No other states allow a citizen to withdraw their signature after a ballot amendment has cleared the certification process.
The bill’s sponsor is Rep. Jon Hansen, R-Dell Rapids, one of the state’s leading anti-abortion advocates as co-chair of the Life Defense Fund, founded specifically to oppose the proposed amendment through its “Decline to Sign” campaign. Hansen is also vice president of South Dakota Right to Life.
Prolonged state battle over abortion
Hansen has sparred regularly with Dakotans for Health executive director Rick Weiland in a high-stakes battle between strongly held pro-life positions in conservative South Dakota and long-established state protections for residents to initiate laws through the petition process.
In a 2022 poll of registered voters co-sponsored by South Dakota News Watch, nearly two-thirds (65%) of respondents said they support having a statewide referendum to determine the state’s laws regarding reproductive rights.
The proposed 2024 ballot amendment would enshrine abortion rights in the South Dakota Constitution by following the trimester framework of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling in which the Supreme Court held that the Constitution protected a woman’s right to an abortion prior to the viability of the fetus.
South Dakota is currently under a 2005 state trigger law activated when the Supreme Court overturned Roe and left it up to states to determine reproductive rights with its 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
South Dakota’s law makes it a Class 6 felony for anyone “who administers to any pregnant female or prescribes or procures for any pregnant female” a means for an abortion, except to save the life of the mother. South Dakota is one of 14 states whose abortion law does not include exceptions for rape and incest.
South Dakota petition process comes under fire
At the committee hearing for HB 1244, Hansen played videos purporting to show proof of unattended Dakotans for Health petitions, which would violate state law, and of circulators providing misleading information to the public.
He noted that Attorney General Marty Jackley sent a letter to Dakotans for Health on Oct. 31, 2023, that mentioned “video and photographic evidence” of such encounters and warned of potentially illegal actions taken by petition circulators.
Jackley said that his letter was based on “complaints and concerns raised during the petition process” and that violations, if proven, could play a role in the Secretary of State’s petition certification process. South Dakota Right to Life was copied on the letter.
“If you obtain petition signatures through fraud or misleading information, that’s not democracy,” Hansen said during hearing testimony. “We want to ensure that people have (signed) voluntarily and on good information.”
Weiland said his group trains petition circulators to follow state law, including handing out slips of paper with the attorney general’s title and explanation of the proposed amendment. He said the larger issue is the harassment his volunteers have experienced at the hands of Life Defense Fund demonstrators.
Leach, when asked about Hansen’s allegations, told News Watch: “I think they are deceptive and overblown. I also think that anyone who would rely on Jon Hansen for accurate information on this issue is making a big mistake.”
Hansen didn’t respond to questions from News Watch about the potential impact of his signature withdrawal bill and whether the changes are aimed specifically at the proposed abortion amendment.
Weiland’s goal for petition: 60,000 signatures
Dakotans for Health needs to collect a minimum of 35,017 signatures to place the abortion amendment on the November 2024 ballot. Weiland told News Watch that his group has collected more than 50,000 signatures, of which 43,000 have gone through an in-house validation process.
“We have another 10,000 that are going through that internal process,” added Weiland, whose goal is to submit 60,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office. The deadline is May 7, but Dakotans for Health might submit the signatures as early as the end of March, he said.
Hansen has said that his group will undertake its own process to verify abortion amendment signatures prior to certification. But HB 1244 would allow opponents of the measure to approach petition signers to potentially withdraw their name as part of an appeal process even if initial signatures are certified.
State law dictates that the appeal would be heard at the circuit court of Hughes County in Pierre.
“That way these challenges would occur under a judge’s supervision,” Hansen said during the hearing, adding that it’s “practically impossible” for an individual to find the exact petition they signed and cross off their name under the current process.
Similar bill struck down in Florida
A similar law in Florida was declared unconstitutional in 2010 by the Florida Supreme Court, which found signature revocation to be politically motivated rather than a “neutral and non-discriminatory protection of citizens’ interests.”
In other words, the court found that the law was designed to thwart a particular ballot initiative rather than attempting to improve the petition process as a whole.
The ruling also noted that laws already were in place to prevent fraud or forgery in the ballot initiative process, as there are in South Dakota.
“The statute and its implementing regulations are not well calculated to reduce perceived instances of forgery and fraud,” read the Florida Supreme Court opinion. “To the contrary, they provide initiative opponents an unchecked, unopposed opportunity to ‘persuade’ Florida electors … to revoke their signatures based upon these opponents’ strident disagreement with the underlying initiative proposals.”
Abortion battlegrounds take shape
Zebadiah Johnson, representing the Voter Defense Association of South Dakota, spoke at the Feb. 14 committee hearing about signature withdrawal campaigns that have occurred in states with revocation laws.
He warned of a “sudden disruption” to the signature gathering process that would occur with less than three months before the petition deadline, an argument also made by the Florida Supreme Court’s majority opinion in 2010.
“Initiative proponents will likely receive no notice with regard to how many of their gathered, signed petition forms have been revoked until it is too late to gather, submit, and verify additional signatures,” the court wrote. “The politically charged counter-petition revocation campaigns created by these provisions in operation would essentially eviscerate and render meaningless the citizen-initiative process.”
The proposed amendment reflects a national trend of progressive groups using the ballot initiative process to gain ground on abortion rights since the Supreme Court rolled back federal protections by overturning Roe v. Wade.
Election wins have come in conservative states such as Ohio, where 57% of voters approved a constitutional amendment in November 2023 that ensured access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care.
In Kansas, voters overwhelmingly rejected a 2022 constitutional amendment that would have allowed the Republican-led Legislature to tighten restrictions or ban abortion outright, with 59% voting against the amendment.
Petition efforts are also under way in states such as Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Nebraska to try to put the issue before voters in 2024, a presidential election year in which high turnout is expected.
Lawmakers formally oppose abortion amendment
The South Dakota Legislature has passed House Concurrent Resolution 6008, which formalizes opposition to the abortion amendment and asserts that the proposed law would “fail to protect human life, would fail to protect a pregnant woman, and would fail to protect the child she bears.”
The resolution passed the House 63-7 and the Senate 29-3.
Weiland, testifying against the resolution at a Feb. 7 committee hearing after wheeling in 50,000 signed petitions, called out inaccuracies in the language and asserted that South Dakota voters have twice rejected extreme abortion bans at the polls.
In 2006, the Legislature passed a law to ban all abortions except those to save the life of a pregnant woman. The measure was signed by then-Gov. Mike Rounds, but opponents gathered enough signatures to refer it to the ballot, where it was defeated with more than 55% percent of the vote.
Two years later, voters rejected by a margin of 55% to 45% a ballot initiative that would have banned all abortions in the state except in cases of rape or incest or “to preserve the health or life of the woman.”
South Dakota’s current law is among the nation’s most restrictive, and Weiland said anti-abortion factions are worried about letting voters have their say.
A November 2023 poll of registered voters co-sponsored by News Watch showed a potentially close race, with 45.6% of respondents supporting the proposed constitutional amendment and 43.6% opposed.
“These are acts of desperation,” Weiland said of legislative efforts to hinder the ballot initiative process. “They’re worried about what might happen when people, not politicians, make these decisions.”
Petition laws have faced challenges in South Dakota
Leach portrayed HB 1244 as the latest attempt by Hansen and other Republican leaders to disrupt the rights of citizens to petition their government. The ballot initiative process dates back more than 125 years in South Dakota and was extended to include constitutional amendments in 1972.
Hansen, a Dell Rapids lawyer who was first voted into the Legislature in 2010, has sponsored several pieces of legislation that curtailed ballot initiative procedures and were later declared unconstitutional.
In 2019 he sponsored House Bill 1094, creating a state registry of petition circulators and requiring them to submit personal information and wear ID badges. Leach sued along with liberal blogger Cory Heidelberger, saying the law violated circulators’ First Amendment rights based on their political viewpoint, and the law was struck down.
In 2020 Hansen sponsored Senate Bill 180, with a similar objective as HB 1094 but focused solely on paid circulators. U.S. District Judge Larry Piersol issued a preliminary injunction in response to a lawsuit from Leach and Dakotans for Health. And in 2022 the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the injunction, calling the law’s pre-circulation disclosure requirements “intrusive and burdensome … as such, they are a severe burden on speech.”
Hansen also sponsored Amendment C, which was placed on the 2022 primary ballot and would have required a 60% vote (rather than simple majority) for ballot measures that raise taxes or spend $10 million in general funds in their first five years. That amendment, viewed as a preemptive strike against Medicaid expansion, was rejected by 67% of voters.
Asked if the signature withdrawal bill continues a pattern of trying to alter the ballot amendment process, Leach told News Watch that Hansen and his supporters are “scraping the bottom of the barrel” as the election draws nearer.
“I’m just shaking my head at all this,” Leach said. “We plan to keep fighting to preserve the rights of citizens to propose and vote on the laws they’re going to be subject to.”
Part 2 of a 3-part series.
South Dakota’s weak open records law gives police agencies full discretion on whether to release footage from body or dashboard cameras, and in most cases, the videos of officer conduct are never shown to the public.
South Dakota News Watch made formal public records requests to obtain video footage of use of deadly force incidents from eight separate law enforcement agencies in November, and all of the requests were quickly denied.
On a few occasions, South Dakota law enforcement agencies have released video footage of their own accord but not necessarily in cases where officer conduct is in question.
The Watertown Police Department released a video on Facebook in early November showing officers responding to a possible break-in with their guns drawn only to find a whitetail buck that had made it into a bedroom.
In 2016, the Rapid City Police Department posted a dash cam video to its public Facebook page showing the chief’s nephew proposing to his girlfriend in a mock traffic stop. “This one is too good not to share,” the Facebook post noted.
The Rapid City Police Department rejected News Watch’s request for videos of a May 30, 2023, incident in which an officer fatally shot 25-year-old Kyle
Whiting, who brandished a fake gun during a foot chase. A bystander inside a nearby home was also shot in the abdomen by the officer and survived. The state ruled the shooting was justified.
Still images tend to clear officers
Some police agencies will occasionally release still images from body or dashboard camera videos, typically when the screenshots show an officer facing a clear threat that appears to justify use of deadly force.
In August, the state released an image from video of a July 5 chase in which a Sioux Falls police officer shot and wounded 24-year-old Deondre Gene Black Hawk in the 100 block of Garfield Avenue.
One still image released to the public shows the gun Black Hawk fired at police. Another image shows Black Hawk pointing the gun toward a pursuing officer prior to the shooting, which was ruled justified by state investigators.
In 2022, the Rapid City Police Department took the unusual step of inviting local media to privately view body camera footage showing the shooting of Barney Leroy Peoples Jr., who was killed after pointing a rifle at officers. The video was not released to the public, and the shooting was ruled justified by the state.
“This was done for public interest and public safety to dispel a false narrative circulating on social media that could have led to civil unrest,” spokesman Brendyn Medina wrote in an email to News Watch.
In a move that appeared to have political overtones, videos were released in 2021 showing former South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg being pulled over by officers for suspected traffic violations. The videos and audio showed Ravnsborg informing officers of his status as attorney general during the traffic stops, some of which did not result in tickets.
The videos were released during a period when Ravnsborg was facing possible removal from office for striking and killing a pedestrian in September 2020.
Ravnsborg was eventually impeached, an action supported by then-Gov. Kristi Noem, whose office also made the unprecedented move of releasing videos of Ravnsborg being interviewed by detectives during the investigation into the 2020 fatal accident.
Federal agency released SD shooting video
In general, the federal government provides more public access to police videos than states like South Dakota, and that access was expanded in a May 2022 executive order from President Joe Biden.
That order included a requirement to expedite public release of videos from officers’ body-worn cameras. As a result, in October 2022, the U.S. Department of Interior issued a new policy that required federal officers to wear body cameras and sought to make it easier and faster for the media and public to obtain videos captured by federal authorities.
Due in part to that policy, video of a June 2023 police-involved shooting in South Dakota was released by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. In that incident, 39-year-old James Schneider of Watauga fired a weapon and then led authorities on a vehicle chase that ended at the Bullhead Community Center parking lot.
According to the dashboard video, Schneider was waving his arms and holding a handgun in an area where people were present. After he turned to flee into a residential neighborhood, he was shot in the back by an officer. Schneider was found guilty in August of assault and weapons charges after a jury trial and is awaiting sentencing.
In releasing the video, the BIA said it was doing so to be transparent in its operations. To protect the privacy of all involved, faces were blurred in the video.
“The community briefing video is intended to help members of the community gain a better understanding of what occurred,” the BIA said in a release. “We are committed to being transparent with our community.”
Privacy a top concern for agencies
Rapid City police do not routinely release department videos, largely due to privacy concerns of anyone captured in the footage, said Medina, the department spokesman.
“Much of the information collected by (body-worn cameras) is confidential and involves personal information, including that of victims, juveniles, and vulnerable individuals involved in critical and traumatic incidents,” Medina wrote in an email. “It’s important to note that we have had requests from victims and families specifically not to release photos or videos of their encounters with police. Additionally, juvenile and victim information is protected by state statute.”
Almost all states that allow for public video releases do so with caveats that privacy issues and often concerns over protecting prosecutions are met prior to release.
Rapid City shares the management of its video program with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, which recently spent about $48,000 to buy 68 Axon body cameras, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Helene Duhamel.
The Sioux Falls Police Department has an extensive video policy that does not typically allow for public release of videos, said Sgt. Aaron Benson.
“Granting public access to dash and body camera video potentially involves numerous issues relating to the rights of all persons in those videos. These rights include but are not limited to general privacy concerns of victims, suspects, witnesses and others, to statutory and constitutional rights of those same individuals,” Benson wrote in an email. “Additionally, release of video can detrimentally affect ongoing investigations, prosecutions and other legal matters related to those videos.”
McPherson County Sheriff David Ackerman, president of the South Dakota Sheriff’s Association, said body and dash cameras are important tools for police agencies in both urban and rural areas, even though his camera program costs about $60,000 a year, roughly 10% of the overall departmental budget.
“These are very valuable tools, and it’s something that in this day and age, every office and agency needs to have,” Ackerman said. “I’m glad where we are today because they’re for the protection of the public as well as the officers.”
Assistant police chief on body cam: ‘I enjoy wearing it’
Monty Rothenberger, assistant police chief in Yankton, said he supports the use of dash and body cameras as a way to increase accountability for officers and to aid in resolving public complaints.
“I wouldn’t do this job without a body camera, and I enjoy wearing it,” Rothenberger said. “I don’t have anything to hide. And because everything is on video, I feel like Big Brother is watching and I support that.”
The Yankton Police Department bought new cameras last year at a cost of about $80,000, he said.
Rothenberger said that while he is aware of South Dakota public records laws that do not require the department to release videos to the public, he said he personally would support the release of videos in a high-profile or controversial case.
“I’m only speaking for myself, but I would never hide anything like that,” Rothenberger said. “That’s not up to me. … (But) releasing that stuff, it’s good that agencies release things when something has gone wrong and they are being transparent.”
Read part 1 of the 3-part series:
Police videos in SD: Public pays costs but cannot see footage As more states begin to provide public access to videos captured by law enforcement agencies, South Dakota continues to keep a tight lid on them.
Publishing Friday, Dec. 19, part 3: A 2020 legislative effort to regulate body camera videos never made it to a vote, maintaining South Dakota’s national reputation for law enforcement secrecy
This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit organization. Read more stories and donate at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email to get stories when they’re published. Contact content director Bart Pfankuch at bart.pfankuch@sdnewswatch.org.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The governor’s Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force, which aims to determine the best path forward for expanding services, will hold its second meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting will continue the dive into what programming should look like for the new prison. Officials in the Department of Corrections say they appreciate the attention to the issue shown over the year.
“The focus is in the right place. I think people are asking the right questions. I think that it’s being noticed that reentry in totality is a group effort,” Justin Elkins, DOC Chief of Behavioral Health, said.
Sitting at 43%, lawmakers and the Rhoden administration have dedicated a substantial amount of time to addressing recidivism in the state.
“I think people are starting to see that reentry is something our department needs help within terms of collaboration and relationships. Because we only determine part of the equation when it comes to reentry,” Elkins said.
Corrections Reentry Program Manager Scott Day says this change in perspective regarding inmates is needed.
“95% of these individuals are going to come back into your community. They’re going to be your neighbors. They’re going to work at your local fast-food restaurant or at your local store. You’re going to see them walk down the street. We just need to see as a culture that these aren’t bad people; these are just people who need an opportunity to show that they can succeed.”
The prison reset task force, which focused on the structure of the new prison, ensured that programming space increased from what is currently available, even when the location changed from Lincoln County to Sioux Falls.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t constantly think about what we could do more. And the new prison is needed. We need the space, we need the opportunity to get more programming in there,” Day said.
Day says the investment into programming space is not a matter of being soft on crime but rather smart on public safety.
Copyright 2025 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
Link to the listing: https://www.frrmail.com/…
For more information, contact: Cory Busse, Farm & Ranch Realty, Inc., at 785-332-8345 or frr@frrmail.com
KENTUCKY, Hopkins County. Five tracts of river-bottom cropland totaling 597.9 acres sold at auction for $5.39 million, or $9,015 per acre. Tracts ranged from 16 to 255 acres, with much containing drainage tile. Soil types were primarily Karnak silty clay and loam with some Belknap and Robbs silty loam. Structures included a tool shed and a 5,000-bushel grain bin. Tracts ranged in price from $7,800 to $11,500 per acre.
Link to the listing: https://www.kurtzauction.com/…
For more information, contact: Joseph Mills, Kurtz Auction & Realty Co., at 800-262-1204 or jmills@kurtzauction.com.
SOUTH DAKOTA, Dewey County. A contiguous, 1,529-acre farm sold to a single bidder at auction for $2,600 per acre, or $3.98 million. The property was offered in four parcels, two of which were historically in crop production (wheat, oats, corn and sunflowers) and boasted Soil Productivity Indexes of 70 or higher. Another highly productive parcel was planted in grass and alfalfa but could be converted to row crops. The remaining parcel included a blend of cropland, pasture and an updated home with a steel barn, shop, two Quonset-style buildings, continuous panel corrals and water tank.
Link to the listing: https://glcland.com/…
For more information, contact: Kristen Gill, Gill Land Company, at 701.934.2732 or 605.848.4502 or kristen@glcland.com.
**
— These sales figures are provided by the sources and may not be exact because of rounding.
— Submit recent land sales to landwatch@dtn.com
Katie Dehlinger can be reached at katie.dehlinger@dtn.com
Follow Katie on social platform X at @KatieD_DTN
(c) Copyright 2025 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.
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