EXPLANATION OF SCORES
Scoring Details
Incumbent Legislators were scored on their voting record when possible.
New candidates were scored on their answers to a survey.
Incumbent Legislator Scoring
Sanctity of Life
Incumbent Legislators were scored based on their most recent score with regard to pro-life bills.
80% or higher: “Strong voting record”
70-79%: “Mixed/moderate voting record”
69% or lower: “Weak voting record”
2011 – 2022: SD Right to Life Scorecard
2023 – 2024: SD Family Voice Action Life Bills Scorecard
(All life scorecards from 2011 to 2024 located at the bottom of the page)
Education
Incumbent Legislators were scored based on their votes on recent bills relating to education options.
75% or higher: Strong voting record
51-74%: Mixed voting record
50% or less: Weak voting record
Examples: HB1250 (2024), SB72 (2024), SB71 (2022), SB177 (2021), HB1204 (2020), SB159 (2016).
Marijuana
Incumbent Legislators were scored on their votes relating to reasonable marijuana regulations. Scores were taken from the 2024 Protecting SD Kids scorecard and the 2022 Legislature Cannabis Scorecard (The most recent score was used)
(link to the scorecards located at the bottom of the page)
2023-24 Protecting SD Kids Scores:
A = Strong record of voting for reasonable marijuana regulations
B = Strong record of voting for reasonable marijuana regulations
C = Mixed voting record on marijuana regulations
D = Mixed voting record on marijuana regulations
F = Poor voting record on marijuana regulations
2022 Legislature Cannabis Scorecard:
30 points of more: A record of support for marijuana expansion
1-29 points: A mixed record on marijuana expansion
Negative points: A strong record of voting against marijuana expansion
Age Verification
Incumbent Legislators were scored on their votes for HB1257 in 2024.
Representatives: The Floor vote on HB1257
Senators: The smoke-out vote and the final floor vote related to HB1257
Due to political games that were played, there is no clear Senate vote for HB1257. The following is a brief description of what happened to the bill after passage in the House.
Senate Committee – Killed the bill on a 4-3 vote (Duhamel, Rohl, Walsh, Wheeler voted against)
Senate Floor – Resurrected the bill with a “smoke-out” vote (12 Senators stood up in favor of the bill)
Senate Floor – Deleted the entire text of the bill and inserted one sentence about studying the issue over the summer (This was done via voice vote, with no record of the vote)
House Chamber – Did not accept the re-write of the bill, but asked for a conference committee to be formed to craft a compromise
Conference Committee – The Senators refused to compromise (Schoenbeck & Wink)
Senate Floor – Voted against having a second conference committee – This was the last Senate vote, which effectively killed the bill
Cumulative Pro-Family Score While in Office
Each year, SD Family Voice Action publishes a scorecard to highlight which legislators stood strong for family values, and which ones did not. The “cumulative score” used in the voter guide is the average score over all the years the legislator served (between 2015 and 2024).
New Candidate Scoring
Candidates running for office without a voting record were sent a Voter Guide Questionnaire and were asked the following questions:
1 If you are elected, how would you vote on bills that protect unborn children?
Examples:
HB1318 (2021) – Prohibit the dispensing of abortion pills via telemedicine.
HB1248 (2021) – Require the reporting of any embryo’s that are destroyed or discarded.
2 If you are elected, how would you vote on bills that expand the education options available to a student?
Examples:
SB177 (2021) – Removing burdensome regulations on homeschool families.
SB72 (2024) – Increase the donations allowed to the Partners in Education Scholarship Fund.
HB1250 (2024) – Implement a school-choice funding system where education funding follows the student
3 If you are elected, how would you vote on bills that regulate medical marijuana?
Examples:
SB82 (2024) – Requiring a bona-fide patient/practitioner relationship before issuing a medical marijuana card
HB1004 (2022) – Prohibit cardholder cultivation of medical marijuana
4 If you are elected, how would you vote on bills that require explicit websites to implement a form of age-verification to keep children off of the website?
Example:
HB1257 (2024) – An Act to require age verification by websites containing material harmful to minors.
Below each question was the option to check “support” or “oppose.”
The red or green symbol in the summary for each district and the color of their answer were determined based on which box was checked. If no box was checked, no color was assigned.
Candidates were also invited to submit a comment of 25 words or less to be included in the voter guide. Comments exceeding the word limit were cut short after 25 words.
Contacting the Candidates
Uniform effort was made to contact all candidates. Each candidate was sent a questionnaire via mail. In addition, candidates with an available email address were sent a reminder email.
Diving Deeper
The following scorecards are provided for those who wish to continue researching the voting records of the incumbent legislators and previously-elected candidates.
South Dakota Right to Life
