South Dakota voters reject GOP effort to block Medicaid expansion

[turbinetree]

By Emily Singer -June 8, 2022 2:51 PM

An estimated 27,800 uninsured adults would gain health care coverage through Medicaid expansion in South Dakota.

Voters in South Dakota on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a Republican-led attempt to make it more difficult to pass ballot initiatives in the state. In an effort to block an expansion of Medicaid coverage for low-income residents, Republican lawmakers had put an initiative on the ballot that, if approved, would have required that future ballot initiatives earn 60% of the vote to pass rather than a simple majority.

The measure came ahead of a November ballot initiative to expand Medicaid in South Dakota. Republican state Senate President Pro Tempore Lee Schoenbeck said in April that putting the measure on a primary ballot, an unusual approach to such initiatives, was intended to increase the vote threshold before the vote on the Medicaid expansion: "You know what, it doesn't matter what ballot it's on. It's on the primary so we can get it in place as soon as possible, because those same people are pushing a welfare program on the November ballot. And you want this to apply to that vote as well."

With more than 95% of precincts reporting, voters had rejected the GOP proposal by a margin of 67.4%-32.6%, according to the New York Times.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

https://americanindependent.com/south-dakota-voters-ballot-initiative-medicaid-expansion-republican-lawmakers/

As I was reading this article earlier today......I kept thinking that because of the power of the cattle industry that the cattle had/ have more influence that humans in the state, and this vote gives back the to the voters what they have always wanted....

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. The People are finally being heard! This is great news. n/t

[LeftInTX]

2. Ballot initiatives are outlawed in Texas, except local initiatives

Instead the GOP lege puts constitutional amendments on the ballot. The amendments are always in extremely low turnout elections and they always pass.

That's one way this state stays so shitty

[SunSeeker]

4. Yup, and Texas WAY underspends on infracture, so as not to tax their rich.

Driving around Dallas recently, I was shocked at how ugly and unlandscaped the highways and roads were, just desolate concrete ditches. But even more appalling is the lack of free crosstown highways. Every major highway through town charged a toll. Highway tolls are one of the most regressive taxes there are, falling largely on working people. If you didn't want to pay a toll, you had to wind your way around crowded poorly maintained surface streets, making it take an hour or more to go from one end of Dallas to the other. Just pitiful and ridiculous, but a perfect example of Republican governance.

[Hassler]

3. It's the GOPee, they'll ignore it like Benito DeathSentence