If a petition to initiate is filed with the auditor, the auditor shall present it to the board of county commissioners at its next regular or special meeting. The board shall submit it to a vote of the voters in the manner prescribed for a referendum within sixty days after the final enactment. However, if the petition is filed within three months prior to the primary or general election, the ordinance or resolution may be submitted at the primary or general election.
S.D. Codified Laws § 7-18A-13
Initiative petition--Presentation to board--Submission to voters
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Schafer v. Deuel County Board of Commissioners (2006)
Most recently applied in Preserve French Creek v. Custer County (July 2024)
Source: SL 1975, ch 82, § 23; SL 1983, ch 47, § 1; SL 2016, ch 44, § 49; SL 2025, ch 37, § 1.
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.