The 2026 Ballot, Explained

Neighbor,

Four weeks from today, you will be holding a ballot. Most of it will look familiar. The bottom of it will not. This is the plain-language walkthrough I wish someone handed every voter, so nothing in that booth feels like a pop quiz.

Your two votes for State House

District 32 elects TWO representatives to the State House. That means you can mark two names in that section and both count. You are not forced to choose one favorite. I am on that ballot, and I am asking for one of your two votes on the strength of everything this campaign has put in writing since July: schools where parents decide, property tax relief without a sales tax hike, an economy that grows what we already love, smart public safety, and the family court reform package I intend to file in January.

Not sure you live in District 32? The line runs right through parts of Rapid City. Check your district and your exact ballot at vip.sdsos.gov.

Four amendments at the bottom: I, J, K and L

Every voter in South Dakota will see four constitutional amendments this year, lettered I, J, K and L. The Legislature put all four there in 2025. None of them came from a petition.

The Secretary of State publishes an official ballot question pamphlet with the Attorney General's explanation of each amendment and the arguments for and against. It is free at sdsos.gov, and the pamphlet itself says you may bring it with you when you vote. Read both sides. Here is how I am voting and why.

Amendment I: Medicaid expansion, if Washington pays less. I am voting yes.

Voters put Medicaid expansion into our constitution in 2022. Today Washington pays 90 percent of its cost. Amendment I says that if the federal share ever drops below 90 percent, the state is no longer locked into that promise. The Attorney General reads it as ending expanded coverage automatically in that case. The sponsor says it hands the decision back to the Legislature. Either way, nothing changes today, because the federal share is still 90 percent.

I am voting yes. I do not want Washington shifting its bill onto South Dakota and forcing cuts to everything else we pay for, including the regular Medicaid that covers nursing home care. That program is separate, and Amendment I does not touch it. About 30,000 South Dakotans are on expanded coverage, and some of them are your kids and grandkids. If that day ever comes, I will fight to make sure working people and folks in their early sixties are not simply dropped.

One note so nobody gets tangled up: Amendment I came from a 2025 resolution numbered HJR 5001. It has nothing to do with the eminent domain HJR 5001 from 2026, which I cover further down. Same number, different year, different bill.

Amendment J: only citizens vote. I am voting yes.

Citizenship is already required to vote here. Amendment J writes it into the constitution in plain words, next to the disqualifications already listed there. I am voting yes.

The argument against it, printed in the pamphlet, is that a lawful voter could get challenged and have to prove citizenship. I take that seriously. If you or anyone you know is ever wrongly challenged, call me, and I will work to fix that process in Pierre. Protecting your vote and protecting the voter rolls are the same job.

Amendment K: a trust for unclaimed property. I am voting yes.

Forgotten bank accounts, uncashed checks, and life insurance that never got paid out go to the state after three years. Amendment K puts that money in a permanent trust. The owner can still claim it, and the state budget spends only part of the interest. State Treasurer Josh Haeder, who wrote the argument for it, says that money earns 3 to 4 percent today while other state trusts earn about 8. Nobody filed an argument against it.

I am voting yes. And while you are thinking about it, search your own name on the State Treasurer's unclaimed property site. Try a parent's name too. A lot of South Dakotans have money waiting and do not know it.

Amendment L: 60 percent to change the constitution. I am voting yes.

Amendment L would require 60 percent of the vote to amend our constitution in the future. Regular laws and initiated measures would still pass by a simple majority, and L itself needs only a simple majority this November.

I am voting yes. The constitution is the foundation of the house, not the furniture, and changing it should take broad agreement.

You deserve the other side too. Voters turned down a 55 percent threshold in 2018 and a 60 percent bar for certain tax and spending measures in 2022. That is a fair point, and it is in the pamphlet. This version treats every amendment the same and leaves regular laws alone. You decide.

The eminent domain amendment that did not make your ballot

You will not find this one on your ballot, and it is worth explaining, because plenty of people in this district expected to see it there.

HJR 5001 would have required the government to declare an actual necessity, and clarified that 'public use' means genuinely public projects, before eminent domain could touch private property. Roads, schools, and utilities would have kept their tools. Private companies would have lost the shortcut of borrowing government power for private profit.

The House passed it 62-5 in January 2026. Then the Senate defeated it 14-19 on March 3, and it never reached you. After the Summit Carbon pipeline fight, South Dakota landowners had earned that certainty, and Pierre could not finish a reform that only five House members opposed.

So there is nothing to mark in November. There is only the question of who you send. I will support filing this amendment again in 2027, and I would vote yes the day it reaches the floor.

What else is not on your ballot

A few other questions people expected this fall did not make it.

Sports betting. SJR 504, the mobile sports betting amendment, is not on your ballot. Earlier this year I told you it was, including here on this blog. That was wrong, and I would rather correct it myself than let it stand. My position has not changed: the state should not balance its budget on broken homes. If it comes back, I will oppose it.

The property tax referendum. The petition to put SB 245 to a public vote fell short of the signatures it needed in June.

Abolishing property taxes. That amendment also fell short of signatures, in May.

If anyone tells you otherwise, the Secretary of State's 2026 Ballot Questions page settles it. The four statewide questions are I, J, K and L.

Check your actual sample ballot

Statewide races, local offices, and the four amendments are all listed on your official sample ballot. Look yours up at vip.sdsos.gov, or call the Pennington County Auditor. Ten minutes with it this week means zero surprises on November 3.

The housekeeping that makes it all count

Registration closes Monday, October 19. Absentee voting is already open, by mail or in person at the Pennington County Auditor's office, 900 Concourse Drive, weekdays 7am to 4pm. Polls run 7am to 7pm on Election Day. And never hand your ballot to anyone you do not completely trust. That includes candidates. That includes me.

Read everything I stand for at zac4sd.com. Then vote like this district's future depends on it, because it does.

Strong Families. Strong South Dakota.

Zac