South Dakota voters will decide whether a statewide smoking ban should go into effect. That decision will impact hundreds of businesses in the state. But the judge's decision to put the issue to a vote may have an even greater impact on the petition process in the future.

The petitions were accepted despite mistakes in notarizing the sheets, mistakes ranging from the wrong date to forgetting to write down the year.

They are mistakes the Secretary of State and Attorney General's Office argue should not have been accepted.

A statewide smoking ban may be the issue at the center of a court challenge in South Dakota, but Secretary of State Chris Nelson's part in the trial to put the ban on the ballot had nothing to do with smoking. 

"The court found that there were a number of areas where we had determined there were errors with the petitions that the court has the authority to find substantial compliance and essentially overlook those types of errors," Nelson said.

Nelson plans to sit down with Attorney General Marty Jackley later this week to talk about the rules and laws regarding petitions and see if this ruling to allow these errors sets a precedent.

"If a court says these types of errors are okay, where does that land us on the next petitions? What other things are going to be okay then, and then we get to a point of is there integrity left in the petition process?" Nelson said.

Nelson is most concerned with the integrity of South Dakota's petitions and elections, rather than the effort to ban smoking in bars and restaurants.

"Are there any of those areas we think will be problematic, not just for this petition but for petition efforts down the road? Are there any bad standards that are really being set here today that would be harmful to the process?" Nelson said.

Nelson says he will talk with the Attorney General before making any type of decision whether to appeal the ruling on the smoking ban petitions.