Bill to ban misleading sample ballots dies in committee after SD senator links it to Putin

PIERRE — A bill that would’ve banned misleading information on sample ballots was killed on Wednesday after a senator likened it to proof of communist Russia operating in the United States.

The bill, HB1239 sponsored by Rep. Bethany Soye, R-Sioux Falls, took its inspiration from a 1913 South Dakota law that said it’s illegal to spread misleading information about ballot measures. Soye’s bill expanded that law to cover the full ballot.

It was also inspired in part by a postcard campaign in 2022 that left out certain officials seeking re-election such as Rep. Scott Odenbach, R-Spearfish. Odenbach spoke Wednesday in favor of the bill.

But in a motion to move the bill to the 41st Day, a non-existent legislative day, Sen. Lee Schoenbeck, R-Watertown, said the intent of the bill was to intimidate South Dakotans from going to the voting booth.

“If you ever needed evidence that [Vladimir] Putin has friends in America, it would be when people introduce bills to try and intimidate people who may not approve of them in office,” he said.

In previous testimony in the House, HB1239 was described as politically motivated.

Prior to the 9-0 vote in the Senate State Affairs committee to send HB1239 to the 41st Day, senators questioned if the ban could extend to future postcards promoting candidate’s as RINOs, Republican in Name Only, or other divisive messaging.

More: Bill could make it illegal to spread misleading ballot information in South Dakota

Soye assured senators that the bill wouldn’t apply to those kinds of postcards. It applies only “if you’re sending out something that purports to be an official sample ballot.

“You can still call people whatever you want, you can say whatever you want,” Soye said. “But if you’re putting something out there that claims to be an official sample ballot, it has to be accurate.”

Schoenbeck said that the postcard that was passed out by Soye representing the misleading sample ballot had a picture of Uncle Sam on it and no reasonable person would mistake that as an official sample ballot. The bill could also ban future postcards sent by political parties with a sample ballot and a check next to a candidate's name.

“It’s amazing that the examples we get are from the two people who came up here and testified in favor of the bill,” Schoenbeck said. “They don’t like people campaigning against them and promoting alternative conservative candidates. I get that they don’t like that, but that’s called the First Amendment and we’re really proud of that in America.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota sample ballot bill dies in committee, called intimidating