No mere informality in the matter of carrying out or executing the provisions of this chapter shall invalidate the election or authorize the rejection of the returns thereof, and the provisions of this chapter shall be liberally construed for the purposes herein expressed or intended.
S.D. Codified Laws § 12-19-34
Informalities do not invalidate election--Liberal construction
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case Larson v. Locken (1978)
Most recently applied in Heinemeyer v. Heartland Consumers Power District (November 2008)
Source: SL 1944 (SS), ch 2, § 8; SDC Supp 1960, § 16.0617; SL 1974, ch 118, § 145.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.