Election reform ballot measure fails to meet deadline for submitting signatures

Charles Tuttle gathers petition signatures on Feb. 8, 2024, in Fargo to put a measure on the November ballot that change several election rules, including requiring hand-counting of ballots. (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)

A ballot measure petition that would have changed how elections are conducted in North Dakota failed to meet a Friday deadline for submitting more than 31,000 signatures required to appear on the statewide ballot.

Approved ballot petitions by the Secretary of State’s Office are given one year to acquire the signatures for the measure from the date they are approved for circulation, according to the office’s website . Petitions that miss the one-year deadline must start the process over by having a new ballot measure petition approved by the office, and a new one-year deadline set.

“We’re going to do it again,” said Charles Tuttle, a member of the election reform measure’s sponsoring committee.

Tuttle said the group wanted the measure to appear on the general election ballot in November. When the July 8 deadline to get on the general election ballot passed, the group relaxed on gathering signatures, he said.

Had signatures been submitted by Friday, the measure would’ve been on the North Dakota statewide primary ballot in 2026.

He said the sponsoring committee is planning to craft another petition related to election reforms and hopes to have it approved by the Secretary of State’s Office and ready to circulate beginning next summer.

“We’re going to start it at the North Dakota State Fair this next summer,” Tuttle said.

He added the group may change some of the measure’s language before next summer and said they may remove the prohibition on early voting the previous measure had called for. However, Tuttle said they still want to limit mail-in ballots due to a perceived higher probability of fraud. It would allow absentee ballots to be issued with a voter stating their reason for needing it.

“We’re going to still go to paper ballots, and hand-counted paper ballots,” he said.

Tuttle said the need for the paper ballots and hand counting is paramount because vote tabulators can allegedly be hacked.

North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe said vote tabulation machines cannot be hacked and the claim was “factually incorrect.”

“They are not connected to the internet and cannot be hacked,” Howe said.

He added that state law already requires paper ballots.

Howe also said petitioners are free to submit their new petitions to the office at any time for approval for circulation.

However, he said any signatures collected during a previous measure’s circulation period would be considered invalid.

The failed election reform measure would have also allowed any U.S. citizen to request an audit of North Dakota ballots upon request, required state lawmakers to have a two-thirds majority vote for legislative initiated measures and prohibited ranked-choice voting in the state.

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