Recent local special elections demonstrate that the new voter ID law is fundamentally flawed and is disenfranchising specific groups of voters. The Republican Supermajority in the 2013 State Legislative Session passed a new voter ID law that is one of the most egregious laws in the nation by eliminating the fail-safe option of voting by…
Lawsuit Shines Light On Secretary Of State Al Jaeger's Competency Problem
Last summer I asked Secretary of State Al Jaeger whether or not he’s made a decision about 2014 yet. “Yes, I have,” he told me. “I will seek re-election in 2014.” When Jaeger completes his current term, he will have been in office for a whopping 22 years, and if he wins another term he’ll…
Lawsuit To Remove North Dakota Governor Doesn't Get Any Less Silly After Reading
Yesterday I wrote about a lawsuit filed by erstwhile gubernatorial candidate Paul Sorum demanding that over 309,000 ballots cast for Republican Jack Dalrymple and Democrat Ryan Taylor – representing 97 percent of all ballots – be tossed out because the Certificate of Endorsement form for those candidates wasn’t filled out correctly. Today I’ve obtained the…
Can A Lawsuit Make A Man Who Got Less Than 2% Of The Vote Governor Of North Dakota?
In the 2012 election, Governor Jack Dalrymple and Lt. Governor Drew Wrigley received 200,526 votes representing 63.1 percent of all ballots cast. Paul Sorum, gubernatorial candidate who lost the NDGOP endorsement to Dalrymple then ran on the general election ballot as an independent, got 5,356 votes or 1.69 percent of all ballots cast. Now, 477…
North Dakota Republicans Stuck Campaigning Against A Vacuum
Yesterday I wrote about the North Dakota Republican Party’s fundraising difficulties. An elected Republican called me about the post and made an interesting point. “How do you fundraise when you’re running against a vacuum?” That’s a good point, and a commenter on my post yesterday made the same point: lets say you are a fundraiser…
The North Dakota Taxpayers Now Own Lawrence Welk's Home
According to reports, the State Historical Society Board narrowly approved the purchase of Lawrence Welk’s homestead. State Historical Society Board votes 6-5 to buy Lawrence Welk homestead this morning.@SarahGustin2 @KXMB #kxnews — Tom Gerhardt (@bistom) January 10, 2014 Last year the state legislature approved $100,000 for the purchase. Since then an assessment by state officials…
Nearly Seven Months After Election, One ND County Found To Have More Votes Than Voters
An error apparently due to a hand-counting error, one that wasn’t caught by state authorities but rather the federal courts, saw one North Dakota counting 300 more votes than there were voters in the county according to the Grand Forks Herald. BISMARCK — More than six months after North Dakotans voted in the November general…
Legislature Considering Bill To Toughen Petition Fraud Penalty, Also Considering Resolution To Honor Petition Fraudsters
There is a heavy vibe of irony coming from the ND legislature this week. Yesterday I wrote about a resolution being introduced to honor the NDSU bison football team, ten members of which (including four starters) were convicted for filing fraudulent petition signatures, something that subsequently derailed two initiated measure campaigns costing organizers hundreds of…