Voting Record Score Released For South Dakota Legislators

SD Citizens for Liberty has released their comprehensive scorecard which gives a percentage score based on state and national founding documents and the Republican Party platforms to all 105 South Dakota legislators.

“This evaluation covers
a broader range of topics than the scorecard released earlier this year”, said Mike Mueller, president of SDCFL. “The first one dealt only with Second Amendment bills, and those scores are rolled into the final calculation on this scorecard.”
Tonchi Weaver, lobbyist for the group and project director for the scorecard, says the scorecards are valuable tools for the average citizen to separate campaign rhetoric from voting reality. “We select bills that affect taxation, property rights, government growth, immigration, life issues, parental rights, and individual freedom”, she said. Actual votes cast by the legislators are scored; absences don’t count against them, but they are apparent on the grid.”

Each vote is color coded on a grid, and the online version of the scorecard is interactive, so anyone can click on a bill, see its history, and read it for themselves.  “Last year there were only 16 members of the House with conservative scores”, said Weaver.  “That number more than doubled this year, and the average scores were much higher.  That paints an encouraging picture of the House as a whole, but the Senate made very slight gains this year.”
According to Mueller, each legislator is emailed a draft before it is published and given an opportunity to verify their votes. “If there is an inaccuracy in anyone’s score, SDCFL is happy to adjust it if there is an error”, said Mueller. “The scorecard must be hand-tabulated, and the best people to check for accuracy are the legislators themselves.” The
scorecard is available on SD Citizens for Liberty’s Facebook page and at https://drive.google.com/file/d/11CfVYlC58tDeWPtTnkTKaSRkSnVKTR4l/view?usp=sharing
For more information, contact Tonchi Weaver or Mike Mueller.