South Dakota activists have officially turned in what they believe will be more than enough valid signatures to put a marijuana legalization initiative on the state’s ballot for the third time this November.
South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) delivered 29,030 signatures to the secretary of state’s office on Tuesday’s turn-in deadline. They need 17,508 of those to be verified in order to make the ballot.
For months it’s been unclear if the grassroots efforts would be able reach the signature threshold for ballot placement, as national industry and philanthropic financial support has been negligible this cycle. But the campaign pushed forward, and now they’ll wait for final confirmation from the state.
“Today is the culmination of seven months of hard work by advocates and volunteers across South Dakota,” Matthew Schweich, executive director of SDBML, said in a press release. “We are very confident that we have collected enough signatures from registered voters to qualify for this November’s ballot.”
Voters did approve a legalization initiative in 2020, but it later was invalidated by the state Supreme Court over single-subject concerns. The campaign’s second initiative in 2022 was rejected by voters. A separate medical cannabis initiative that was also approved by voters
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