File Photo Nathan Allen mans a booth at the North Dakota State Fair in July 2021 to collect signatures on an initiated measure to increase the voter support needed to pass a constitutional measure.

A committee attempting to get a measure on the November ballot to increase the percentage of support needed to change the state’s constitution won’t challenge the North Dakota Secretary of State’s rejection of its petitions.

Secretary of State Al Jaeger found petitions to be insufficient after disqualifying 5,738 signatures for various reasons, many of them related to errors or violations by circulators. With the disqualifications, the 31,622 signatures submitted fell short of the 31,164 required to get on the ballot.

Jaeger also referred the matter to the North Dakota Attorney General for investigation as required in state law.

“We are not looking to challenge. We respect the process and the Secretary of State doing their job,” said Jeff Zarling of Williston, co-chairman of Protect North Dakota’s Constitution. “It’s just unfortunate.”

The measure would have limited initiated constitutional measures to one subject and required them to garner 60% majorities to pass.

The measure is the second this year that Jaeger rejected after disqualifying large numbers of signatures. A measure that would have set term limits for the governor and legislators won’t be on the November ballot after the Secretary of State’s Office threw out thousands of signatures as invalid and upheld that decision after receiving arguments to the contrary from the sponsoring committee.

Zarling said Protect North Dakota’s Constitution is “extremely disappointed.”

“We just clearly did not collect enough signatures. It’s been an arduous process and it’s been, honestly, beset with problems,” he said.

He said the committee used hired petition circulators but managed that process rather than hiring an outside firm as the term limits committee did. He said they had an internal process to thoroughly train circulators and ferret out violators, turning violators over to authorities when caught. Apparently, the Secretary of State’s review system caught problems missed by the committee’s scrutiny, he said.

Jaeger wrote in the letter to the committee that 10 petitions were not counted because they were not circulated in their entirety as required. Petitions circulated by three circulators were not counted because of similar writing styles, numerous odd city abbreviations and misspellings of Bismarck, signatures of individuals (one misspelled) who confirmed they had not signed the petitions, a circulator who signed several petitions and a circulator who used several different addresses as legal residential address. Jaeger noted the petitions also contained names of individuals living outside North Dakota.

Zarling said identified problems were associated with paid circulators. The measure saw strong efforts by grassroots circulators as well, but it is difficult to say whether those efforts alone would have been enough to gather adequate signatures within the yearlong timeframe, he said. He noted the difficulty in collecting signatures in today’s society, with its weaker system of social engagement than in years past.

Although the committee could start over and aim for the ballot in 2024, it also has the option of asking the North Dakota Legislature to approve placing the measure on a future ballot.