South Dakota

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Mitt Romney won South Dakota handily, no surprise in a state where Republicans hold 80 of the 105 seats in the Legislature. As a result, much of the attention in South Dakota was on ballot measures on questions of taxation and education similar to those being considered elsewhere.

Voters rejected by two to one an education-overhaul plan supported by Gov. Dennis Daugaard, a Republican, and opposed by the teachers’ union. It would have created a system for evaluating teachers and principals, awarded bonuses to teachers who were judged to be high performing, allowed school districts to end tenure for teachers and offered financial incentives to people to teach subjects in which teachers are in short supply. Voters also soundly defeated a proposed sales tax increase to support schools and Medicaid. And in a victory for Mr. Daugaard, they approved a constitutional amendment requiring the state to balance its budget.

Neither of South Dakota’s Senate seats was on the ballot. Kristi Noem, a Republican who narrowly won South Dakota’s only seat in the House of Representatives two years ago, won a second term.