As the South Dakota Republican Party formalizes its opposition to a marijuana legalization initiative that will appear on the November ballot, a new poll shows that a slim majority of voters are also against the proposed reform.
Weeks after state officials confirmed that the measure from South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) once again qualified for the ballot, South Dakota Republicans adopted a policy expressing “strong opposition” to the measure, and two Catholic dioceses similarly urged voters to reject the initiative.
The legalization campaign has dismissed the opposition, but a survey from the University of South Dakota’s Chiesman Center for Democracy that was released this week signals that activists have their work cut out of them to close the gap and secure majority support by Election Day.
The poll found that 52 percent of registered voters are against Initiated Measure 29, compared to 42 percent who are in favor and another six percent who are undecided. That opposition is consistent with the vote to reject an earlier legalization measure in 2022.
There’s a significant partisan divide on the issue, with 71.4 percent of Democrats backing the proposal, while just 24.4 percent of Republicans are supportive of the reform. Independents
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