A national furor has erupted over North Dakota’s voter ID laws. Specifically the requirement that to vote in our state, which doesn’t even require voters to register, you must have identification which includes a current residential address. This requirement was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, in a 6-2 decision that included…
Why Didn’t North Dakota’s Tribes Testify Against Voter ID Legislation They Now Say Is Voter Suppression?
“Why would we ever disenfranchise a Native American veteran who only has a P.O. box that everybody knows when they walk into the polling booth, they know exactly who that person is, they know that they’re a North Dakota resident,” Senator Heidi Heitkamp told ABC News recently. “That’s why we don’t have registration in North…
Senator Nicole Poolman: Setting the Facts Straight About Voter ID in North Dakota
This guest post was submitted by Republican state Senator Nicole Poolman, Chair of Senate Government and Veterans Affairs Committee and cosponsor of HB 1369. After watching inaccurate national news coverage surrounding North Dakota’s voter identification law, I felt compelled to set the record straight on the legislative process and intent behind the voter ID bill. Some…
Voting Is Easy for Native Americans in North Dakota…Says Senator Heidi Heitkamp?
There have been a lot of national headlines devoted to North Dakota’s voter ID law, recently upheld in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Most of it promotes the idea that the voter ID law suppresses the Native American vote in our state. Get a load of these headlines from a Google News search: Some of…
Tribal Governments Should Take Some Blame Over the Voter ID Issue
What I’m about to write is going to be anathema to some because, as I pointed out in my Sunday column, a big part of Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign strategy right now is painting North Dakota’s voter ID law as some nefarious Republican plot to suppress the Native American vote. Heitkamp is no doubt hoping…
Print Column: Appeals Court Smacks Down Ugly Democratic Rhetoric About North Dakota Voter ID Law
MINOT, N.D.—This week the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of a lower court injunction which prevented North Dakota’s voter identification law from being enforced. At issue was state law saying only ID’s with current residential addresses on them were valid for voting. The lower court had enjoined that law, saying the state…
Federal Appeals Court Allows North Dakota ID Law Heitkamp Described a “Suppression” to Be Enforced
According to a release from Secretary of State Al Jaeger’s office, today the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of a previous ruling in a lawsuit challenging North Dakota’s voter identification law. Previously the federal courts had ruled that North Dakota’s law, which said that only ID’s could be used to vote, couldn’t…
Group That Describes Voter ID Laws as “Suppression” Endorses Secretary of State Candidate Josh Boschee
A left wing 527 group called Let America Vote has endorsed Democratic Secretary of State candidate Josh Boschee. “Josh Boschee is one of North Dakota’s strongest advocates for voting rights and he’ll be an outstanding secretary of state,” the group’s president Jason Kander said in a statement (see below). “Josh believes in removing barriers to the…
Rep. Scott Louser: North Dakota’s Voter ID Laws Protect the Ballot Box
This guest post was submitted by Rep. Scott Louser, a Republican from Minot A recent post on this blog referenced a political science professor assigning partisan motivation to the voter ID bill passed in 2017. As a Republican legislator, one of the sponsors of HB1369 (I prefer to call it the Voter Integrity Act) and…
Podcast: AG Stenehjem Says There Isn’t “Any Truth” in Accusations of Voter Suppression From Democrats
Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem joined me on air today to discuss the on-going litigation over North Dakota’s voter ID laws. He pointed out that the state has been largely winning the case, noting that the judge is allowing the law as enacted in 2017 to be largely enforced. That means voters can still sign an…