Any ordinance or resolution adopted by a board of county commissioners may be referred to a vote of the qualified voters of the county by the filing of a petition signed by five percent of the registered voters in the county, based upon the total number of registered voters at the last preceding general election, except such ordinances and resolutions as may be necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or for the support of the county government and its existing public institutions.
S.D. Codified Laws § 7-18A-15
Referendum petition--Number of signatures required--Emergency measures excepted
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Schafer v. Deuel County Board of Commissioners (2006)
Most recently applied in Grant County Concerned Citizens v. Grant County Board of Commissioners (February 2011)
Source: SL 1975, ch 82, § 25; SL 1988, ch 63, § 3.
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.