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Signature Challenge First Of Its Kind In SD  

Thursday was a historic day in South Dakota. For the first time a group is challenging a petition to put an issue on a statewide ballot. Supporters of a statewide smoke free law filed paperwork with the Secretary of State's office claiming opponents did not collect enough signatures to put a smoking ban on the 2010 ballot.

The South Dakota Secretary of State's office says checking the signatures smoke free supporters are challenging will be a top priority for them.

The Secretary of State's office will start reviewing the nearly 10-thousand challenged signatures Monday to determine whether they are, in fact, invalid. It previously took three people, three days to go through 13-hundred signatures. At that rate, it would take the staff working on the challenge until the middle of August to finish the review. But no matter how long it takes a challenge of a petition this size, on a statewide level, is history in the making.

"This is as Chris called it, 'uncharted territory,' because this has never happened before," Deputy Secretary of State Teresa Bray said.

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