I realize this and I am very familiar with what went down. I spoke with the SD SOS office prior to receiving the copy of the DNC certification of nomination. They told me that the rules for the DNC & the RNC are the same as what is required by the Independents who file in our state to be on the ballot. The DNC certification is suppose to have the qualification language in it. That certification was the lone piece of information the SOS used to qualify the candidates as being eligible. A piece of paper that stated NOTHING as to the candidates eligibility. He ran for our lone US House of Rep seat in the primaries and he got creamed. We may not be a big population state, but we still have enough conservatives to keep those who don't do their job off the ticket. Jackley knows we are watching & will be checking for proof of Obama's eligibility in 2012.
Here are South Dakota laws:
http://legis.state.sd.us/statutes/DisplayStatute.aspx?Statute=12&Type=Statute
Here is where the national party is required to send a letter to your state:
http://legis.state.sd.us/statutes/DisplayStatute.aspx?Type=Statute&Statute=12-8-8
“In years when a President and vice president are nominated and the national party conventions are held at such a late date as to make the foregoing provisions impossible, then, the secretary of state shall make the certification not later than seven days after nominations of such President and vice president.”
Here are more party responsiblities as to Presidential contests:
http://legis.state.sd.us/statutes/DisplayStatute.aspx?Type=Statute&Statute=12-5-3.11
“12.5
...
The nominating petition shall contain a statement indicating the candidates for delegates collective preference choice for President of the United States, if any, or that the candidates have no preference or are uncommitted. No name of any candidate for delegate or alternate may be filed in more than one slate.”
http://legis.state.sd.us/statutes/DisplayStatute.aspx?Type=Statute&Statute=12-5-3.16
“12-5-3.16. Certification of names of national convention nominees for President and vice-president—Alternate certification. The chairperson of the national convention of each political party recognized pursuant to § 12-1-3 or 12-5-1 shall certify the names of the convention nominees for President and vice-president of each political party to the secretary of state immediately following the convention. If the national certification is not received or is inconclusive, the names shall be certified by the state chairperson of that party at the request of the secretary of state.”
This is used if the convention is after the ‘normal’ date for candidate submission. Which I think is the case for 2008.
So in looking at this I do not see any requirement to sign-off or certify specific constitutional eligibility. So there was no reason to send your SOS a letter with the Constitutional eligibility language.
In Hawaii there is a specific law requiring such declaration in the document declaring the candidates for the ballot. Since the local Hawaii declaration did NOT include this the DNC letter had to be reworked to include it and the the COE, Kevin Cronin was allowed, by law, to make an decision to use the national declaration instead of the local one. When he was asked to release the documents used to validate Obama/Biden he released BOTH the local and national letters. This makes it look like he used or accepted both. But that is not the law. The law is one or the other. Obviously he had to use the national letter with full language that was not included in the Brian Schatz letter.