Bravo! Democracy at work.

Though I’m not a big fan of Darrin Smith, I will say he is a very shrewd politico, and he would not be challenging the smoking petition unless he knew he had a good fight;

A coalition of health advocates on Thursday claimed that almost 10,000 signatures collected by opponents of a statewide smoking ban are invalid.

They filed a formal protest with the secretary of state’s office, asking the office to invalidate 9,891 signatures.

If those signatures are found to be bad, opponents of the smoking ban would not have enough to qualify for the ballot in 2010. That could pave the way for South Dakota to become the latest state in the nation to ban smoking in most bars and restaurants.

I’m glad they did this, not only will it prove our state’s method of certifying petitions is flawed it will also prove that getting signatures from drunk smokers isn’t probably the best way to get valid signatures. One thing I have learned from gathering signatures is you must watch signers closely, not all of them fill it out completely. I can’t imagine what that would be like getting intoxicated people to sign. Though I disagree with the smoking supporters, I will give them a word of advice, they should not have gathered signatures in a bar.