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• However, South Dakota and prior court rulings have given the courts authority to decide whether nominating petitions substantially comply with laws and rules, Barnett said. The law is supposed to be interpreted liberally to let voters decide races, he said.
• Barnett noted that the blank form issued by the state Board of Elections is intended to be used by candidates for county, legislative district and state offices. It could be argued that Johnson was correct to list Lake County voters as signers of his nominating petition because that county is part of the legislative district, he said.
• Johnson needed 42 valid signatures from registered voters, and he got 68 from Lake County, Gant testified. Johnson also got five signatures from another county.
• Gant said Johnson was one of four candidates to make the same mistake on their nominating petitions. The other three had time to fix their mistakes, but Johnson filed too late to correct his form and get the required valid signatures, he said.
• The secretary of state said Johnson's error gave the impression he was running for an office just in Lake County, not for an office in the four-county legislative district.
• "An error there is much more than a simple, technical issue," Gant told the judge.
• But Johnson's lawyer, Sam E. Khoroosi of Sioux Falls, said Johnson should be on the ballot because the nominating petition informed signers that he was running for the state Senate in District 8.
• "There's absolutely no risk of confusion," Khoroosi said.
• Assistant Attorney General Rich Williams, representing Gant, said the flawed petition created confusion on whether Johnson was running in Lake County or the larger legislative district.
• "The statute requires this to be a clear statement of the candidate. This is not a clear statement," Williams said.
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