A Sioux Falls resident votes in the city and school board election at Southern Hills United Methodist Church on April 9, 2024. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
The executive board of the South Dakota Democratic Party voted on Thursday to oppose Constitutional Amendment H, a ballot measure that would open up primary elections to all voters regardless of party affiliation.
Currently, Democrats and Republicans conduct their own party primaries to choose their nominees for the general election. Democrats allow independents to cast ballots in their primaries; Republicans do not.
Open primaries measure approved for the ballot
If passed Nov. 5, Amendment H would allow all voters to vote in primary contests that include all candidates, regardless of party. In races where one winner is chosen on the general election ballot, the top two vote-getters in the primary would advance. In races with two general election winners, such as races for state House of Representatives, the top four would advance from the primary.
The state Republican Party came out against open primaries in 2023, GOP Chairman John Wiik told South Dakota Searchlight. Party leaders refer to it as a “jungle primary” and say it stands as an attempt to let those outside the party influence candidate selection.
Democratic leaders have voiced concerns, as well. The state Democratic Party Executive Director Dan Ahlers and its Chairman Shane Merrill told The Dakota Scout newspaper in June that the measure would hurt the minority party by making all-Republican general election contests more likely.
On Thursday, the party’s leadership agreed, formally placing Democrats on the opposing side of the measure. A press release on the executive committee vote points to all-GOP ballots as a reason for its opposition to Amendment H.
California and Washington state have open primaries, the release said, and the minority parties in those states are regularly absent from general election ballots as a result.
Backers pitch Amendment H as a move to get South Dakotans to the polls in primaries, but state Democrats say it won’t work and point to 2022 as an example.
“In 2022, California and South Dakota had the same primary turnout at 29%,” the press release reads. “Wyoming, which has a closed primary, had 42% voter turnout.”
Joe Kirby, the Sioux Falls civic activist who leads the Amendment H charge, told South Dakota Searchlight that the news of party opposition is further evidence that the parties are more concerned with holding power than empowering voters.
“Party bosses” like Ahlers and GOP Chairman John Wiik, Kirby said, “don’t like Amendment H because it would take political power back from them and return it to the voters where it belongs.”
“South Dakota voters are tired of unfair elections where few voters turn out to vote, like the recent state primaries,” Kirby said over email. “Open primaries will allow all voters to participate, including the 150,000 independent voters who currently have little to no voice in hiring the people who govern the state.”
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