First, legislators are proposing to require proof of citizenship from citizens who come to vote. This comes based on the premise that there is fraud in the North Dakota voting system, an idea promoted by Donald Trump even though millions of dollars were spent to find fraud and none was found.

Secretary of State Al Jaeger has always run a tight ship so to suggest that there has been fraud is an insult to Jaeger.

Then once again the perennial bill has been introduced to curtail the citizens’ right to initiate constitutional amendments. Here again, we have found no abuse of the process, a cure for which there is no disease.

Curtailing the citizens’ initiative will result in greater domination of the policy process by the legislature.

Bill sponsor Sen. Jenna Myrdal (R-Edinburg) defended her bill by claiming that this measure promotes the rights of the people of North Dakota. That is an amazing observation. This claim is being made even though the bill would require a two-thirds majority instead of 50% for the initiated constitutional measure to be approved. A two-thirds requirement would make the initiative useless — and that’s the intent of this proposal.

The claim has been made that the North Dakota legislature is unique in that it is a “citizens” legislature, meaning that anyone can walk in off the street to serve.

That wasn’t the argument legislators were using when we discussed term limits. Suddenly, we were concerned that term limits would rob the legislature of its experience.

Supporters of the restriction of petitions were whining over out-of-state money coming into our policy process. They cite the creation of the ethics commission, medical marijuana and term limits as examples.

If we want to make the “out-of-state” argument, all we need do is check the list of lobbyists maintained by the Secretary of State during the legislative session. Out-of-state money is funding all sorts of activities to push legislation one way or the other.

Back when the state adopted the right of citizens to initiate and refer, the argument was that we needed a gun behind the door. The question posed is this: Is our legislature any better today than it was 100 years ago?

The legislature still meets for only 80 days every other year, meaning that here are subjects the legislature never seems to have time for: services to women and children. We have a lot of unattended business in North Dakota.

The legislative leaders just released their proposed use for the earnings of the Legacy fund. Millions were planned for the business side; nothing for the human services side.

An open process for citizens to propose action in neglected areas is important to give a spending balance to the budget.

The proof of citizenship proposal and the proposal to cripple use of the initiative are both designed to lessen the role of citizens in their government.

Let’s be honest. The citizenship bill is intended to make it more difficult for the lower income folks to vote; the petition restrictions are intended to prevent the people of the state to propose and pass amendments to the state constitution. It is nothing short of a brazen attempt to reduce the role of citizens to share in governing.

I once heard that our government was “by the people and for the people.” Not a bad idea if we can keep it.

Lloyd Omdahl is a former lieutenant governor of North Dakota and former political science professor at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.