Photo Credit: Alex Shuper / Unsplash

Amendment H, which would implement a nonpartisan top two primary system in South Dakota, may be in serious trouble. That is, if a recent South Dakota News Watch poll is accurate.

The poll, co-sponsored by the Chiesman Center for Democracy at USD, found that 55.8% of respondents said they plan to vote "No" on Amendment H, while 39.8% said "Yes."

This left only 4.4% undecided. 

"The challenge with our Top Two open primary proposal is to make people aware of exactly how it works," said Joe Kirby of South Dakota Open Primaries.

"Once they understand that, they tend to say things like 'of course, why wouldn't we want that?'"

The primary election system proposed by Amendment H ends party primaries that are paid for by taxpayers but are closed to citizens outside the Republican and Democratic Parties.

It replaces this partisan primary system with a nonpartisan model in which all voters and candidates, regardless of party, have access to a single primary ballot.

Every candidate that qualifies to run in an election appears on the ballot, and every registered voter has an opportunity to vote for whomever they want in each race.

The top vote-getters move on to the general election to decide the winner between who voters determined to be the two most viable candidates.

Alaska, California, and Washington use similar primary systems. In Alaska, the top four vote-getters advance to the general election. 

“The main argument for this amendment is fairness,” said Kirby. “All voters should have an equal voice in electing their representatives and leaders.”

Polling in June had Amendment H in a promising position. Then, 55% of respondents said they supported open primaries -- up from November 2023 when it was at 49%.

Now, the numbers have flipped.

The June and October polls were conducted by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy and surveyed 500 registered voters. 

The latest poll has a +/- 4.5% margin of error.