An effort to streamline the process of changing a county name has cleared its first legislative hurdle in Pierre.
In the November election residents in Shannon County overwhelmingly approved a measure to change the name to Oglala Lakota County. But under current law that new name must be approved by the legislature and announced by the governor.
Shantel Krebs is the South Dakota Secretary of State. She backs Senate Bill 66. Krebs says the legislation gives voters more say and removes the approval process from the legislature. Under the bill if two-thirds of the voters in a county approve the name change it goes straight to the Secretary of State for certification.
“We felt that the current language again was arduous and old and we just felt that if the voters of that said county says it’s what they want to do that we feel that that should just be certified,” says Krebs.
Krebs says if passed the law will not affect the current process of changing the name of Shannon County, but would apply to future name changes. The bill goes next before the full Senate.