Jacob Stutzman, Fargo

I’m writing to express my extreme displeasure of North Dakota Voters First inappropriate and insulting use of active military personnel in their campaign to change the North Dakota Constitution. Let me explain.

In their measure, they include five changes, and leading the long and disconnected list is the ease in which active military can vote while stationed out-of-state. All it does is change the existing 46-day requirement to 61 days for transmittal of the ballot.

While I don’t disagree with adding 15 more days to vote, I disagree with the group using military personnel as a diversion. North Dakota Voters First wrote this primarily in their measure language in an attempt to hide the more insidious elements within. Even a discerning voter might not read past the military part and sign the petition believing it was full of good intentions. North Dakotans are great supporters of our military and we are thankful for that. The petition gatherers even used the military aspect to get signatures. I signed it believing that’s all it was, based on the petitioners’ claims.

When I later read the full petition aimed to initiate ranked-choice voting, launch open primaries, and alter legislative redistricting, I pulled my signature. Should our active military be tied like a piece of candy dangling out in front of a pile of stinking cabbage? It makes me angry–shame on North Dakota Voters First and their out-of-state backers for this manipulation.