A coalition of anti-tobacco groups say 10,000 signtures on a petition to bring South Dakota's smoking ban to a public vote are invalid.
Story Created:
Jul 2, 2009 at 5:44 PM CST
Story Updated:
Jul 2, 2009 at 9:49 PM CST
Thousands of South Dakota establishments were to have gone smoke free July 1st but didn't because of a petition filed to block it.
South Dakota's Secretary of State's office tells Action News this is the first time the validity of a state-certified public petition has been challenged.
Earlier this year, the South Dakota Legislature approved, and Governor Rounds signed into law, a smoking ban for bars, restaurants and casinos to go into effect July 1st.
Last week, those opposed to the ban turned in a petition with 25,000 signatures to bring the issue to a public vote, though they needed just under 17,000 signatures.
Secretary of State Chris Nelson says his office certified 1,300 signatures, meaning the ban would not go into effect July 1st - but would instead go to a public vote in November 2010.
Today anti-tobacco groups, including the American Heart Association, say nearly 10,000 petition signatures are not valid and they are challenging its validity.
This afternoon, we spoke with the American Heart Association's Darrin Smith. He tells us the challenge was filed with the Secretary of State's office in Pierre at 4 o'clock Thursday afternoon. He said, "Several thousand people who signed the petition sheet are not registered voters. That was a very common mistake, in fact, the most common mistake made. Next, would probably be notary irregularities. There were several thousand signatures that we feel are invalid as a result of that."
One of the key players behind the petition to bring the smoking ban to a public vote is Larry Mann, a well known lobbyist for the video lottery industry. He says the process of gathering signatures for this petition was legal and followed all necessary rules as set out by the state.
It will be up to the South Dakota Secretary of State's office to determine the validity of the smoking ban petition.
We asked Deputy Secretary of State Teresa Bray this afternoon how they will validate the 10,000 signatures in question. "It is quite involved. Just doing the random sampling took us about 3 days to check and that was about 1,300 signatures so you can imagine how long it will take to do 10,000 signatures."
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