South Dakota GOP Opposes Amendment V

South Dakota Republican Party Executive Director Ryan Budmayr emailed Republicans in South Dakota regarding Amendment V on nonpartisan elections which will be on the ballot in South Dakota in November.

The South Dakota GOP considered and passed a resolution a little over a week ago in the state convention which denounced the Democrat-instigated effort to muddy the waters of the primary election process in our state.

I was hoping the SDGOP would put the resolutions on the website, and they did (they didn’t post the ones from 2014 online…I wonder why). The platform is also available on the website.

Below is the text Budmayr sent out this afternoon.

Greetings Fellow Republicans,

I wanted to take a moment as a follow up to the State Convention to discuss an important issue on the ballot this fall: Defeating Amendment V – Rick Weiland’s plan to elect Democrats by hiding party labels on the ballot.

The Republican Party overwhelmingly passed a Resolution at the State Convention opposing Amendment V. Senator Thune and Governor Daugaard spent significant time discussing the negative impacts of this Constitutional overhaul in their remarks on Friday evening at the Convention.

What Senator Thune says about Amendment V:

Amendment V is an attempt by South Dakota Democrats to hide candidate party affiliation on the ballot from voters. Rather than run on their party’s principles and policies it seems they are desperately looking for a way to run from them. I’m opposing Amendment V because I believe voters deserve more transparency on their ballot, not less.

Governor Daugaard said:

I believe political parties – all parties – serve an important role in our democracy. They crystalize issues. They bring like-minded people together. They help the electorate make sense of the electoral system.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with Amendment V, here are some of the facts.

Amendment V is a Constitutional overhaul that would take information away from voters at the time they need it most. This amendment would make three major changes to our election system:

• First, it would do away with partisan primaries. Every candidate from every party would run on the same ballot, with all registered voters participating in a single primary for each office. The top two candidates, regardless of primary, would advance to the November ballot.

• Second, it would do away with the State Convention’s role in selecting candidates for statewide office. Our state convention would no longer nominate candidates for the constitutional offices. These would also be selected through a non-partisan primary by all registered voters.

• Third, it would take party labels off the ballot. Not only would it allow all voters to vote in the primaries, it would actually hide candidates’ partisan affiliations from the voters.

The third change is very troubling. Rick Weiland and the other proponents of this amendment talk a lot about “transparency.” However, they are trying to make our ballot less transparent – by hiding party labels. As Republicans, we need to see this amendment for what it is. Rick Weiland and the other Democrats have realized that, after eight damaging years of the Obama Administration, South Dakota voters simply don’t trust Democratic candidates to represent our values.

Rather than changing this policies to appeal to South Dakota voters, they are trying to hide behind a less transparent ballot that removes the word “Democrat.” It’s really quite something – the Democrats are admitting that the word “Democrat” hurts them when they run for office!

You will be hearing more about this issue in the weeks and months to come. In the meantime, if you’d like take a look at the Resolution that was passed overwhelmingly at the SDGOP State Convention, you can go here (Resolution #5) – http://southdakotagop.com/about-the-party/resolutions/resolutions/

If you’d like to volunteer to help defeat this terrible ballot initiative or would like to donate to the cause, please reach out to me at this time.

As always, contact me with any questions.

Thanks!

Ryan Budmayr
Executive Director
South Dakota Republican Party
[email protected]
www.southdakotagop.com

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Bob Ellis has been the owner of media company Dakota Voice, LLC since 2005. He is a 10-year U.S. Air Force veteran, a political reporter and commentator for the past decade, and has been involved in numerous election and public policy campaigns for over 20 years. He was a founding member and board member of the Tea Party groups Citizens for Liberty and the South Dakota Tea Party Alliance. He lives in Rapid City, South Dakota with his wife and two children.

Bob Ellis

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