Not Taking Any Chances

by digby

SIOUX FALLS, SD – Today’s Argus Leader newspaper revealed that Attorney General Larry Long has been asked to give his opinion on the timeframe for the circulation of petitions to refer the abortion ban passed by the legislature to the voters of South Dakota.

Central to the request of the Attorney General is a question being forwarded by two South Dakota legislators who are working on an expensive legal strategy to prevent the people of South Dakota a chance to vote to keep or repeal the near-total ban on abortions.

State Senator Lee Schoenbeck and State Representative Roger Hunt, the chief author of the abortion ban, are concocting a legal strategy to shut down the petition-signing process nearly three weeks before the deadline set under South Dakota law and confirmed by Secretary of State Chris Nelson. Nelson has consistently said the deadline for petitions is June 19, but Hunt and Schoenbeck believe it should be nearly three weeks earlier, shutting off opportunities for South Dakota voters to sign petitions.

You have to wonder why they would bother with this unless they have information that leads them to believe the referendum rejecting the draconian coat-hanger law might succeed.

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