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South Dakota House despite a technical problem on his nominating petition, a judge ruled Friday.
• The state's chief election officer, Secretary of State Jason Gant, had rejected the nominating petition filed by David Mitchell because Mitchell did not list his political party on one line of the document.
• However, Circuit Judge Mark Barnett of Pierre said Mitchell's nominating petition substantially complied with legal requirements because other lines indicated that Mitchell is running for the House as a Democrat in District 20, which includes Jerauld, Aurora and Davison counties.
• "It's clearly indicated this is a Democratic petition," Barnett said.
• Gant also had argued that Mitchell's nominating petition did not contain enough

voters' signatures because Mitchell notarized some sheets of the document himself. Gant dropped that argument during Friday's court hearing after evidence submitted by Mitchell indicated that at least one other legislative candidate also might have notarized his own nominating petition.
• Mitchell's lawyer, Sam Khoroosi of Sioux Falls, said 42 of the 211 legislative candidates submitted nominating petitions with various kinds of flaws.

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