A committee promoting election reform in North Dakota aims to have an initiated constitutional measure on the June 2024 ballot, according to chairwoman Lydia Gessele, Chaseley.

The sponsoring committee for the Election Integrity Act Initiative presented a petition Wednesday to the North Dakota Secretary of State for language approval, which is required before supporters can seek signatures.

Although the proposed measure allows for paid circulators, Gessele said the committee doesn’t plan to go that route.

“We plan to do this totally grassroots. We have at least 500 people that have already said that they would volunteer to do this,” she said.

“People really want transparency,” she added. “That’s what the whole goal is – to make our elections more transparent so that we have a way to detect election fraud and verify that we actually had an election.”

The comprehensive measure addresses Article II, Section 4, of the state constitution, adding a significant amount of new language, as well as Sections 3, 5 and 10 of Article III.

“I know there are a lot of different parts, but the election has a lot of different pieces to it. And we need to get the elections back under control,” Gessele said. “They aren’t at a place where we can actually review or verify our elections here in North Dakota, so that doesn’t give voters any way to detect if there’s been any fraud, and this should help with that issue.”

Gessele said there will be a need to educate the voters if the measure reaches the ballot. Already, misunderstandings have arisen over whether absentee ballots would be allowed, she said. The proposed measure permits absentee ballots but sets additional rules that prohibit public drop boxes and limit the number of absentee ballots a person can take responsibility for turning in.

The proposed measure does eliminate mail-in ballot precincts, requiring all precincts to have a polling place.

“Most of the people I talked to, their statement has been, ‘What took you so long?'” Gessele said. “They’re not just missing the polling place. They miss the fact that they don’t know if their vote got counted or not because of so many of the issues with our elections.”

Gessele said committee member Paul Sorum, Fargo, wrote a majority of the proposed measure several years ago, and a number of other individuals since contributed to the final draft.

“As more and more people started to see issues, we’ve been talking about what we can do to actually get the power back for ‘we the people,’ because we thought the legislators would do it, but they weren’t able to do it. So it’s in our hands now,” Gessele said.

A provision that has garnered the most attention is one calling for hand-counted paper ballots. Gessele said hand-counting can be an efficient process. France hand-counts their ballots in one day, she said.

“But it will require them to open up all the precincts that we’re supposed to have in each county as well,” she said.

More polling places will require more workers, which some county auditors say have been difficult to find. However, Gessele said individuals interested in helping were turned away as not needed in the last election, and she’s confident enough workers can be found.

The proposed measure also requires elections to be conducted by elected county auditors. Many counties, including Ward, have county commission-appointed auditors. Gessele said this provision would not affect city and other locally run elections.

“We’re just trying to make sure that our elections for the state and for federal offices are back in the hands of actually elected county auditors,” she said. “That’s the way it was supposed to be. Our auditors are supposed to be elected by the people, not selected by a group.”

The proposed measure adjusts some voter identification requirements. North Dakota currently allows a state driver’s license, nondriver’s identification card, tribal government-issued identification or long-term care identification certificate. An individual without an ID can mark a ballot and have it set aside until providing valid identification before the canvassing board meets.

Military IDs, passports or an attester who provides an ID are acceptable in applying for absentee ballots.

The proposed measure says voters must present a photo ID, a North Dakota-issued ID, the last four digits of a Social Security number or a U.S. passport. Gessele said voters would be able to bring utility bills or other proof of residence when providing Social Security numbers.

A voter without an acceptable ID could bring an Affidavit of Truth, a document signed by three adults attesting to a person’s identity. For verification purposes, signers must list phone numbers and addresses.

Gessele said North Dakota is ahead of other states in advancing these reforms.

“We’re the first one to actually get this to the people. But I know other states are talking about going back to paper ballots and hand counting,” she said.