PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — South Dakota lawmakers considered on Monday whether to override the governor’s veto of legislation that would have required petitioners proposing state constitutional amendments receive signatures from every state Senate district.

A two-thirds majority was needed in each chamber — 47 in the House of Representatives and 24 in the Senate — to put House Bill 1169 into effect despite Gov. Larry Rhoden’s veto.

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HB 1169 sought to require that petition carriers get signatures from each of 35 state Senate districts, equal to at least 5% of the votes cast in the most recent election for governor.

The House had voted 63-6 to accept the Senate’s version of HB 1169. On Monday, the House voted to override the governor 50-18.

The Senate originally had voted 19-15 for HB 1169. But on Monday, 16 senators stood with the governor and supported the override 16-16.

The South Dakota Constitution requires signatures from at least 10% of voters to propose a constitutional amendment. Republican Sen. David Wheeler argued against the override. “We are now setting a different bar,” Wheeler said.

The 12th senator to vote no during the Monday roll call was Republican Sen. Kyle Schoenfish.

Gov. Rhoden outlined his reasons for the decision in a veto letter. Among them, he wrote, “It is not clear whether baseline level of signatures, which is set in Article III, Sec. 1 of the South Dakota Constitution can be modified by statute.”

Rhoden said he instead prefers a constitutional amendment that will be on the 2026 ballot asking whether voters they want to raise the threshold to 60% for a constitutional amendment to pass statewide.