South Dakota Legislature

South Dakota State Legislature
South Dakota State Legislature
Type
Type	Bicameral
Houses	Senate; House of Representatives
Leadership
President Pro Tem of the Senate	Corey Brown (R); Since January 8, 2013
Speaker of the House	Dean Wink (R); Since January 10, 2015
Structure
Seats	105 voting members:; 35 Senators; 70 Representatives
Senate political groups	Republican (27) Democratic (8)
House political groups	Republican (58) Democratic (12)
Elections
Senate last election	November 4, 2014
House last election	November 4, 2014
Meeting place
	South Dakota State Capitol, Pierre
Website
	http://legis.sd.gov/

The South Dakota State Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of South Dakota. It is a bicameral legislative body, consisting of the South Dakota Senate, which has 35 members, and the South Dakota House of Representatives, which has 70 members.^[1] The two houses are similar in most respects; the Senate alone holds the right to confirm gubernatorial appointments to certain offices. In addition, the Senate votes by roll call vote, whereas the larger house uses an electronic voting system.

The Legislature meets at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. It begins its annual session of the second Tuesday of January each year. The legislative session lasts 40 working days in odd-numbered years, and 35 days working days in even numbered years. Generally, the legislature meets every business day until the session ends, excepting on last day which is delayed to allow for consideration of gubernatorial vetoes. In addition, the legislature occasionally meets on Saturdays to make-up for recesses on holidays such as Presidents' Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

The legislature selects, from its membership, an Executive Board to tend to administrative matters during the time when the legislature is not in session. The administrative support for the legislature is provided by the South Dakota Legislative Research Council.

Since the 1996 election the Republican Party of South Dakota has had a supermajority in State Senate and since the 1976 election the Republican Party of South Dakota has had a supermajority in State House.^[2]

Selection of state legislators

Members of both houses of the state legislature are elected in November of every even-numbered year to serve a two-year term. Since 1993,^[3] legislators have been limited to serving four consecutive 2-year terms in a single house, but there is no limit on the number of non-consecutive terms a legislator may serve. However if a legislator serves the limit they are re-eligible for election after 2 years. Vacancies in the legislature are filled by gubernatorial appointment.

State legislators are elected from 35 legislative districts; each multi-member district elects one senator and two representatives. In 33 districts, representatives are elected at-large from the entire district. District 26 and 28, however, are divided into two house districts, each of which elects one representative. This is meant to ensure greater representation of Native Americans in the legislature.

Legislative districts are redrawn every ten years, following the United States Census. The districts currently in effect were adopted by the legislature in 2011.^[4] Each district encompasses approximately 23,200 people.

As a result of a 2005 court order, several legislative districts in the southwest corner of the state were redrawn for the 2006 elections. District 26 was split into two single-member house districts, much like District 28. The state appealed the District Court decision that resulted in these changes, but the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's ruling. The legislature decided not to appeal the decision. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

South Dakota legislative districts as of 2005; each district elects one senator and two representatives.

External links

[http://legis.state.sd.us/ South Dakota Legislative Research Council - Official homepage of the South Dakota State Legislature
Newspaper coverage: Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Rapid City Journal

Notes

Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.

Use <references />, or <references group="..." />

References

Schoenfeld, Fred (Legislative Research Council), (2012). [1] "South Dakota Legislator Reference Book"

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

↑ Schoenfeld 2012, p. 13.
↑ http://legis.sd.gov/docs/legsession/2014/LegislatorReferenceBook.pdf
↑ Schoenfeld (2012), p. 14.
↑ http://legis.sd.gov/Legislative_Session/Bills/Bill.aspx?Bill=1001&Session=2011s

[1] Schoenfeld 2012, p. 13.

[2] ttp://legis.sd.gov/docs/legsession/2014/LegislatorReferenceBook.pdf

[3] Schoenfeld (2012), p. 14.

[4] ttp://legis.sd.gov/Legislative_Session/Bills/Bill.aspx?Bill=1001&Session=2011s

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e State of South Dakota
Pierre (capital)
Topics	Delegations Famous South Dakotans Geography Government History Timeline Transportation Symbols Universities Visitor attractions
Society	Culture Crime Demographics Economy Education Politics
Regions	Badlands Black Hills Coteau des Prairies Coteau du Missouri Dissected Till Plains Drift Prairie East River Pine Ridge Siouxland West River
Larger cities pop. over 5,000	Aberdeen Belle Fourche Box Elder Brandon Brookings Harrisburg Huron Madison Mitchell Pierre Rapid City Sioux Falls Spearfish Sturgis Vermillion Watertown Yankton
Smaller cities pop. 1,000 - 5,000	Baltic Beresford Britton Canton Chamberlain Clark Clear Lake Crooks Custer De Smet Deadwood Dell Rapids Eagle Butte Elk Point Flandreau Fort Pierre Freeman Garretson Gettysburg Gregory Groton Hartford Hot Springs Lead Lemmon Lennox Martin Milbank Miller Mission Mobridge North Sioux City Parker Parkston Platte Redfield Salem Sisseton Springfield Summerset Tea Tyndall Volga Wagner Webster Winner
Largest CDPs pop. over 1,000	Blackhawk Colonial Pine Hills Dakota Dunes Fort Thompson North Eagle Butte North Spearfish Oglala Pine Ridge Porcupine Rapid Valley Rosebud
Counties	Aurora Beadle Bennett Bon Homme Brookings Brown Brule Buffalo Butte Campbell Charles Mix Clark Clay Codington Corson Custer Davison Day Deuel Dewey Douglas Edmunds Fall River Faulk Grant Gregory Haakon Hamlin Hand Hanson Harding Hughes Hutchinson Hyde Jackson Jerauld Jones Kingsbury Lake Lawrence Lincoln Lyman Marshall McCook McPherson Meade Mellette Miner Minnehaha Moody Oglala Lakota Pennington Perkins Potter Roberts Sanborn Spink Stanley Sully Todd Tripp Turner Union Walworth Yankton Ziebach

v t e Current elected statewide political officials of South Dakota
U.S. Senators	Mike Rounds (R) John Thune (R)
U.S. Representatives	Kristi Noem (R), Representative At-Large
State government	Dennis Daugaard (R), Governor Matt Michels (R), Lieutenant Governor Jason Gant (R), Secretary of State Marty Jackley (R), Attorney General Rich Sattgast (R), State Auditor Vernon Larson (R), State Treasurer
Senate	Bob Gray (R), President pro tempore Russell Olson (R), Majority Leader Jason Frerichs (D), Minority Leader
House	Val Rausch (R), Speaker Brian Gosch (R), Speaker pro tempore David Lust (R), Majority Leader Bernie Hunhoff (D), Minority Leader
Supreme Court (appointed)	David Gilbertson, Chief Justice Steven L. Zinter Glen A. Severson Lori S. Wilbur Janine M. Kern

v t e Legislatures of the United States
United States Congress	United States House of Representatives United States Senate
State legislatures	Alabama (H, S) Alaska (H, S) Arizona (H, S) Arkansas (H, S) California (A, S) Colorado (H, S) Connecticut (H, S) Delaware (H, S) Florida (H, S) Georgia (H, S) Hawaii (H, S) Idaho (H, S) Illinois (H, S) Indiana (H, S) Iowa (H, S) Kansas (H, S) Kentucky (H, S) Louisiana (H, S) Maine (H, S) Maryland (H, S) Massachusetts (H, S) Michigan (H, S) Minnesota (H, S) Mississippi (H, S) Missouri (H, S) Montana (H, S) Nebraska Nevada (A, S) New Hampshire (H, S) New Jersey (GA, S) New Mexico (H, S) New York (A, S) North Carolina (H, S) North Dakota (H, S) Ohio (H, S) Oklahoma (H, S) Oregon (H, S) Pennsylvania (H, S) Rhode Island (H, S) South Carolina (H, S) South Dakota (H, S) Tennessee (H, S) Texas (H, S) Utah (H, S) Vermont (H, S) Virginia (H, S) Washington (H, S) West Virginia (H, S) Wisconsin (A, S) Wyoming (H, S)
Other legislatures	District of Columbia American Samoa (H, S) Guam Northern Mariana Islands (H, S) Puerto Rico (H, S) U.S. Virgin Islands

South Dakota Legislature

Contents

Selection of state legislators

See also

External links

Notes

References

Navigation menu

Personal tools

Namespaces

Variants

Views

More

Search

Navigation

Tools