FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to revise certain provisions regarding the voting rights of
persons convicted of a felony or serving time in the state penitentiary.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
Section 1. That § 12-4-18 be amended to read as follows:
12-4-18. The clerk of courts shall, within fifteen days after the close of each month, prepare
and deliver to the auditor an abstract from the records of the names of persons declared mentally
incompetent in the preceding month. The notice shall be sent to the county auditor of the county
in which the person declared incompetent resides. The county auditor shall remove from the
master registration list the names of persons identified in accordance with the information
provided pursuant to this section and names of those sentenced to imprisonment in the federal
penitentiary system and may remove names published in an obituary.
Voter registration records maintained in or transmitted to the statewide voter registration file
shall be matched with the death records maintained as vital statistics records by the Department
of Health and the records of felony convictions maintained by the Unified Judicial System. Any
voter identified as deceased or who
receives a felony sentence to the adult state penitentiary
system including a suspended execution of a sentence is serving a sentence for a felony
conviction shall be removed from the voter registration records. The State Board of Elections
may promulgate rules, pursuant to chapter 1-26, determining how voter registration records shall
be matched.
This section is effective on January 1, 2004.
Section 2. That § 23A-27-35 be amended to read as follows:
23A-27-35. A sentence of imprisonment in the state penitentiary for any term suspends the
right of the person so sentenced
to vote, to hold public office, to become a candidate for public
office
, and to serve on a jury
, and. Any such person so sentenced forfeits all public offices and
all private trusts, authority, or power during the term of such imprisonment. Any person who
is serving a term in any penitentiary shall be a competent witness in any action now pending or
hereafter commenced in the courts of this state, and
his the person's deposition may be taken in
the same manner prescribed by statute or rule relating to taking of depositions. After a
suspension of sentence pursuant to § 23A-27-18, upon the termination of the time of the original
sentence or the time extended by order of the court, a defendant's rights withheld by this section
are restored.
However, the voting rights of any person sentenced to imprisonment in the state
penitentiary shall be governed by Title 12.