Latest news with #HouseBill1446
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House rejects bills that aimed to change how North Dakota candidates get on the ballot
Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, speaks on the House floor on Feb. 25, 2025. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) Two bills that would have reshaped how candidates get on the North Dakota ballot failed in the House late Tuesday. House Bill 1446, sponsored by Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, would have eliminated the option of getting on the ballot through a political endorsement. Instead, candidates for statewide and legislative offices would be required to gather signatures to get on the primary or general election ballot. Currently, candidates can get on the ballot through either a political endorsement or by gathering signatures. However, several incumbent lawmakers skipped district endorsing conventions last year, citing concerns about the process. And two candidates endorsed at the Republican Party state convention went on to lose in the primary. 'The system, we all know, is not working,' Nathe said. Under the proposal, legislative candidates would be required to obtain signatures for 1% of the district's total population, about 167, while statewide office holders would need to acquire 2,000 signatures. Competing bills would change how candidates get on North Dakota ballot During floor debate, Nathe said some districts are pushing candidates away if they don't meet the 'litmus test' for the perceived values of the political party. Others are being harassed and booed at meetings if they say anything that could go against party doctrine, he said. Lawmakers opposing the bill suggested it would put more candidates on the primary ballot and would fundamentally change the endorsing process. Rep. Vicky Steiner, R-Dickinson, acknowledged that some districts have issues, but said it's up to the state party to correct the behavior. She said some districts take their endorsements and processes seriously and are consistently trying to improve them. 'The system works,' Steiner said. 'Endorsing a candidate gives the voter a chance to understand that that person has been vetted by a group of people who have a set of principles.' Rep. Ben Koppelman, R-West Fargo, said there would be no way to verify that the signatures submitted by a candidate are from people of the same party. 'Many court cases have suggested that a party, through law, cannot be deprived of the ability to choose their candidate,' Koppelman said. Nathe's bill failed on a 58-32 vote. House Bill 1424, sponsored by Koppelman, would have required candidates to obtain a political party's endorsement. Candidates who submit signatures to get on the ballot could not have a political party next to their name. After the debate on Nathe's bill, Koppelman urged lawmakers to vote against his proposal. 'I think that we all are reacting to what our experiences are in the last two, maybe four years,' he said. 'I think if cooler heads prevail, and we go back and try to build the best districts that we can, that we'll be successful in our respective parties and hopefully we'll get more people involved.' Koppelman's bill failed on an 86-3 vote. House Minority Leader Zac Ista, D-Grand Forks, said people listening to the floor debate may get the wrong impression that getting into politics is 'messy' and 'nasty.' 'I can't speak for your districts or party, maybe that's true, but I want people watching to know that that's not the case in the minority party,' Ista said. 'I sure hope you all will figure this out so we can move forward productively.' Senate Bill 2252, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Walen, R-New Town, also would have prohibited ballot access to the primary election for candidates not endorsed by a political party. Walen's bill failed on the Senate floor Monday on a 41-6 vote. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Competing bills would change how candidates get on North Dakota ballot
Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, introduces a bill during a committee hearing on candidate ballot access on Feb. 7, 2025. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) Two proposals in the North Dakota Legislature seek to reshape how statewide and legislative candidates get on the ballot. The bills follow an election season that saw some legislative incumbents skip their local endorsing conventions and two candidates win primaries without support of the Republican party. North Dakota allows candidates to appear on the ballot for the primary or general election by either receiving a political party endorsement at the district or state level or obtaining a set amount of signatures. House Bill 1446, sponsored by Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, would eliminate the option of getting on the ballot through a party endorsement. Instead, all candidates for statewide office would be required to gather at least 2,000 petition signatures while legislative candidates would need 167 signatures, or 1% of their district's population. 3 Bismarck Republican lawmakers skip local endorsing convention 'Why not let the people of your district, let the people of the state decide who should be on the primary ballot versus a small group of political insiders?' Nathe said during a hearing Friday. Nathe, a representative of District 30, skipped his district endorsing convention in 2024 with two other Republican incumbents and instead gathered signatures to get on the June ballot. They cited concerns about the fairness of the district endorsing process, including that a candidate was allowed to run the meeting. The incumbents overwhelmingly won in the primary and went on to win in November. 'By the petitions, we're including everybody, letting everybody have their say versus what's happening now, which is pushing people away, or people are intimidated, or don't want to get involved,' Nathe said. Leaders of the North Dakota Republican Party and former Republican Gov. Ed Schafer opposed Nathe's bill. They said it would allow anyone, Republican or Democrat, to designate themselves as a member of a party with no affirmation from the party itself. 'HB 1446 is not the way to correct the fractures in the process today,' Schafer said. 'It is the party that needs to correct the dishonesty, the inappropriate behavior that has entered into this nominating process.' Schafer said without a party nominating process for its own candidates, the door would be opened for big money interests to flood the election cycle and boost candidates they deem appropriate. 'Government should not be dictating how a private organization presents its candidates' values and character to the public,' he said Rep. Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, questioned the candidate vetting process at the party level. He said candidates who don't agree with the party 100% of time get labeled a RINO, or Republican in Name Only. Rep. Vicky Steiner, R-Dickinson, said the vetting process of candidates at the district level is important to make sure Republican candidates are actually Republicans. 'That's a vetting process to make sure that our values are carried to the ballot,' Steiner said. Nathe said many Republicans feel like they are not being heard and questioned why districts get to define who is, and isn't, a Republican. 'Once you are on that ballot, then there is a primary contest and they are getting vetted through the election process,' he said. Secretary of State Michael Howe gave neutral testimony on Nathe's bill. He told lawmakers his office may require more overtime hours or an extra full-time employee to help verify the additional signatures. Another bill would essentially do the opposite. House Bill 1424, sponsored by Rep. Ben Koppelman, R-West Fargo, would eliminate the option of gathering signatures to get on the primary ballot if the party makes an endorsement. If the party does not make an endorsement, candidates could get on the ballot by collecting signatures. Koppelman said North Dakota is unique because it doesn't have party registration requirements for the primary and doesn't have voter registration. 'Really what we have are a bunch of people that aren't members of a political party that weigh in in the primary to pick who that party's nominee is so that they can again weigh in in November,' Koppelman said. At the Republican Party's state convention in 2024, Julie Fedorchak did not receive the party's endorsement for Congress and Kirsten Baesler did not receive a letter of support from the party for superintendent of public instruction. Both obtained signatures to get on the June ballot and overwhelmingly defeated their competitors. Other candidates have skipped the state convention in recent years, including former Gov. Doug Burgum in 2016. NDGOP endorses Balazs for House after Fedorchak withdraws Koppelman's bill would also empower the Secretary of State's Office to investigate complaints about political endorsement conventions. Howe opposed that aspect of his bill. 'Our office is not involved in any of these endorsing meetings or activities as they are a function of the party and in no way overseen by the Office of the Secretary of State,' Howe said. 'This bill seeks to insert a state agency in the Office of Secretary of State into the middle of party politics.' No other people spoke in opposition to the bill. Sandi Sanford, chair of the North Dakota Republican Party, said the party has work to do to address perceptions around the endorsing processes. 'Everything we're dealing with is fixable,' Sanford said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
