An Act to revise provisions related to residency for voter registration.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of South Dakota:

Section 1. That § 12-1-4 be AMENDED:

12-1-4. For the purposes of this title, the term, residence, means the place in which a person has fixed his or her the person's habitation and to which the person, whenever absent, intends to return.

A county auditor shall determine residency based on the following:

(1) The sole basis for the person's presence at the location is not based on a business or a commercial use;

(2) The residence of the person is a place in which the person's habitation is fixed and to which the person has a definite plan to return following an absence;

(3) The person is not claiming residency solely for taxation or insurance purposes with no intention of physically remaining or returning; and

(4) The person maintains a domicile with long-term sleeping accommodations at the location, unless the person is homeless and lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence or domicile, which in such case residency must be determined using one of the following:

(a) A supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations;

(b) An institution that provides temporary residence for a person intended to be institutionalized; or

(c) A public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation;

If the county auditor denies a person's registration based on residency, the person may appeal the denial to the Office of Hearing Examiners as a contested case pursuant to chapter 1-26 1-26D. The administrative law judge may allow voter registration at a particular address if the judge determines circumstances indicate residence was established at the address. Prior long-term residence in the state must be considered proof of intention to return to the state.

A person who has left home and gone into another state or territory or county of this state for a temporary purpose only has not changed his or her the person's residence.

A person is considered to have gained a residence in any county or municipality of this state in which the person actually lives, if the person has no present intention of leaving and has actually resided in this state for at least thirty consecutive days in the year prior to the election.

If a person moves to another state, or to any of the other territories, with the intention of making it his or her the person's permanent home, the person thereby loses residence in this state.

Section 2. That chapter 12-1 be amended with a NEW SECTION:

No person may register to vote using a business location or campground as the registration address unless the person has resided at the business location pursuant to section 1 of this Act and owns, is employed at, or has resided at the location for at least thirty days prior to the election. If no other residential address or valid physical description of the location of the residence is available, the person may appeal to the county auditor in the county of registration.