North Dakota has an exemption in the SAVE Act but questions remain as Senate debate continues | Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor

State officials have said a controversial election security bill in Congress wouldn’t impact North Dakota, but some voting rights advocates in the state raise concerns that it could make it more difficult for some people to vote. The SAVE America Act would require voters to present valid photo ID to vote in federal elections, and proof of citizenship to register. The proposal has broad support among Republicans, including North Dakota’s congressional delegation. Critics oppose the bill on the grounds that it would expand federal control over elections and could make it harder for some to vote. It’s currently being debated in the Senate. The legislation includes an exemption for North Dakota since it’s the only state without voter registration, though it would still require North Dakota to have a system for verifying the citizenship of its voters. The SAVE America Act doesn’t say anything about what this process must look like. SAVE Act contains exemption for North Dakota voters, but questions remain as Senate debate continues • North Dakota Monitor

North Dakota: US Supreme Court blocks ruling that would undermine the Voting Rights Act | Lawrence Hurley/NBC

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked an appeals court ruling that would gut a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. The decision grants an application brought by Native American tribes, putting on hold the decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Justice Brett Kavanaugh had temporarily blocked the lower court ruling a day before it was due to go into effect, giving the justices more time to decide what next steps to take. The brief, unsigned order noted that three conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, would have denied the application. Read Article

North Dakota: Appeals court rules against tribes in voting rights case that could go to Supreme Court | Jack Dura and Steve Karnowski/Associated Press

A federal appeals court won’t reconsider its decision in a redistricting case that went against two Native American tribes that challenged North Dakota’s legislative redistricting map, and the dispute could be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court. The case has drawn national interest because of a 2-1 ruling issued in May by a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that erased a path through the federal Voting Rights Act for people in seven states to sue under a key provision of the landmark federal civil rights law. The tribes argued that the 2021 map violated the act by diluting their voting strength and ability to elect their own candidates. The panel said only the U.S. Department of Justice can bring such lawsuits. That followed a 2023 ruling out of Arkansas in the same circuit that also said private individuals can’t sue under Section 2 of the law. Read Article

North Dakota: “A Law Without a Way to Enforce It” – Native groups face a triple threat on voting rights | Pascal Sabino/Bolts

The water system that provides for the entire Spirit Lake Reservation in North Dakota has been contaminated with dangerous levels of manganese that have made the water undrinkable since May. For Lonna Jackson-Street, chair of the Spirit Lake Tribal Council, which is now scrambling to provide bottled water to residents and install a filtration system, the crisis underscores the need for Native voices in government. The federal government fails to properly maintain infrastructure it’s supposed to be managing, and state leaders don’t dedicate enough resources to reservations they see as outside their jurisdiction. “Native representation is so important,” she said, “because they understand the gaps in these services and how they are administered to our tribal nations.” Read Article

North Dakota governor signs bill doing away with Fargo’s unusual voting system | Jack Dura/Associated Press

North Dakota’s governor signed a bill Wednesday to prohibit the unusual voting system used by his state’s largest city. The bill signed by Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong bans ranked-choice and approval voting. Ranked-choice voting, in which voters rank their preferred candidates, is used in Alaska and Maine and various cities, but not in North Dakota. Voters select as many candidates as they want under approval voting; the top vote-getters win. Fargo adopted approval voting via ballot initiative in 2018 and uses the system for electing the mayor and four city commissioners. The measure came after previous elections in which candidates won commission seats with just slivers of the overall vote in crowded races. Read Article

North Dakota lawmakers reject voter registration bill | Grant Coursey/The Bismarck Tribune

North Dakota lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to reinstate voter registration on Monday, Feb. 17, keeping the state the only one in the country without it — a distinction some said residents are proud of. House Bill 1287 would have brought statewide voter registration back to North Dakota for the first time since 1951, requiring voters to register with their local election precinct online or in person to be eligible to vote in all statewide special, primary or general elections. The bill received a 7-3 do-not-pass recommendation from the Government and Veterans Affairs Committee with four lawmakers absent/not voting and was defeated in the House with a vote of 75-15 with four lawmakers absent/not voting. Read Article

North Dakota hand-counting measure effort fizzles | Jack Dura/Associated Press

A proposed ballot measure in North Dakota that sought to require hand-counting of every election ballot, among other proposals, won’t advance. Initiative leader Lydia Gessele said Thursday the group won’t be submitting signatures by a Friday deadline because they fell short by about 4,000 signatures of the 31,164 needed for the constitutional measure to appear on the ballot. The group had one year to gather signatures. Deadlines for the measure to make the state’s June and November 2024 ballots came and went, though the group could have submitted signatures to appear on the June 2026 ballot. The measure proposed myriad changes including mandating hand counts of all ballots; banning voting machines, electronic processing devices and early voting; restricting mail ballots; and allowing any U.S. citizen to verify or audit an election in North Dakota at any time. Read Article

North Dakota: Ballot measure to prohibit electronic voting machines and tabulators misses deadline for November ballot | Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor

Sponsors of a constitutional ballot initiative that would change how elections are conducted in North Dakota failed to submit signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office by Monday’s deadline for inclusion on the November ballot. The petition was approved by the Secretary of State’s Office for circulation on Sept. 27, 2023, and the measure’s sponsoring committee has one year to gather 31,164 signatures. Sponsors are working to collect 20,000 more signatures between now and September for inclusion on the June 2026 ballot, Lydia Gessele, chair of the ballot measure’s sponsoring committee, told the North Dakota Monitor. She said petition circulators are gathering more signatures than required in case some are ruled invalid. “We’re going to have people out at different events and then just in their communities as well,” Gessele said. The ballot measure would prohibit electronic voting machines and tabulators, which would cause all election results to be hand counted. Some of the other aspects of the measure would prohibit early voting or voting by mail, except for absentee ballots; drop-boxes for ballots; and ranked-choice voting. Read Article

North Dakota: Judge dismisses election official’s mail ballot lawsuit | Jack Dura/Associated Press

A federal judge in North Dakota has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the acceptance of mail-in ballots after Election Day, filed by Burleigh County Auditor Mark Splonskowski and supported by a legal group associated with former President Donald Trump. U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor ruled that Splonskowski lacks standing to bring the case and failed to demonstrate harm from the law or a violation of his constitutional rights. The judge expressed concern that an elected official openly advocated violating the law he was elected to enforce, and noted that the lawsuit’s success could impact overseas and military voters’ rights to vote. Read vArticle

North Dakota: Laboratory for a Suite of MAGA-Driven Election Reforms? | Greg Simbeck/WhoWhatWhy

A proposed ballot measure in North Dakota, led by Lydia Gessele, aims to mandate hand counting of all ballots in elections, with several other major proposed changes, including new restrictions on mail-in balloting, a mandate for all in-person voting to take place on Election Day, and the elimination of tribal government-issued IDs and long-term care IDs as valid identification at the polls. The proposal is part of a broader movement influenced by unsupported claims of election rigging in the 2020 election. Verified Voting comments on the proposal, highlighting the importance of safeguards in voting technology and expressing concerns about widespread expansion of hand counting impairing election administration and undermining public confidence in U.S. elections. The measure faces opposition from Republican officials, including the current Secretary of State Michael Howe, who argues that hand counts are less standardized than using scanners. Read Article

North Dakota could become the first state to hand count all votes under new proposal | Jack Dura/Associated Press

A proposed ballot measure in North Dakota aims to require all election ballots to be counted by hand, potentially becoming the first state to mandate hand counts. However, election officials, including former Secretary of State Al Jaeger, reject these claims, asserting that there was nothing that would have changed the outcome of the vote. Opponents of the proposal, including North Dakota’s Republican Secretary of State Michael Howe, argue that hand counts would lead to delays and increased errors compared to using scanners. Critics also highlight the lack of specificity in the measure regarding the process and funding for hand counts. If the proposal makes the June 2024 ballot and is approved by voters, North Dakota would replace ballot scanners with manual counting by hundreds of workers across the state. Read Article

North Dakota Petition seeks to ban early voting and  voting machines | Kortney Lockey/KVLY

North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe has approved a petition format for a proposed constitutional measure regarding election processes. Supporters now have until September 27, 2024, to gather signatures for review. The measure, if passed, would bring several significant changes to North Dakota’s electoral procedures. These include prohibiting early voting, mail-in voting (except for absentee ballots), ranked-choice and approval voting, as well as electronic ballot counting devices and voting machines. Additionally, the amendment would require hand-counting of ballots, allow citizens from any U.S. state to audit North Dakota elections, and mandate the public release of individual ballots on the Secretary of State’s website for at least six years. Read Article

North Dakota: Petition to overhaul state’s election system back on the table | Ben Grundhauser/InForum

A petition proposing significant changes to North Dakota’s election process, resubmitted after an earlier withdrawal, seeks to amend Article III of the state constitution with an “Election Integrity Act.” As with the original proposal, voting machines would be prohibited in the state, with all voting conducted on Election Day using paper ballots and tabulation done by hand “starting on the day of the election and continuing uninterrupted until hand counting is completed.” Early voting and unsupervised public drop boxes would be prohibited, while absentee ballots would require a written request within a reasonable timeframe prior to Election Day. The petition also mandates electronic scanning of all cast ballots 24 hours after hand counting, with the electronic versions preserved for at least six years. Read Article

North Dakota: Proposed ballot measure looks to overhaul elections, remove voting machines | Jacob Fulton/The Bismarck Tribune

A group of residents in North Dakota has filed a petition with the Secretary of State’s office for a proposed constitutional measure that could lead to significant changes in the state’s electoral process. The proposed changes include replacing voting machines with hand-counted paper ballots and restricting mail-in voting by requiring all mail-in ballots to be received by 8 p.m. on the day before the election. The initiative must gather over 31,000 valid voter signatures to make it onto the ballot, with hopes of inclusion in either the June primary or the November 2024 general election. Read Article

North Dakota election official challenges mail ballot counting law in Trump-aligned group’s lawsuit | Jack Dura/Associated Press

A North Dakota county election official is suing the state’s election director to block the counting of mail-in ballots received after Election Day. The lawsuit was filed by the conservative group Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF), known for bringing lawsuits during former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020. The lawsuit argues that federal and state law conflict on the deadline for ballot submission, causing confusion and potential criminal penalties for election officials. PILF claims that allowing ballots to be counted after Election Day violates federal law and seeks to restore the significance of Election Day. Critics argue that the lawsuit is an attempt to challenge the delay in announcing election results and echoes Trump’s unfounded claims about the 2020 election. Read Article

North Dakota Senate OKs bill to ensure physical polling places | Jack Dura/The Bismarck Tribune

The North Dakota Senate on Friday, March 31, passed a bill to ensure physical polling places, similar to legislation that failed in 2021, brought in the wake of North Dakota’s all-mail June 2020 election. House Bill 1167 , by Rep. Steve Vetter, R-Grand Forks, passed in a 39-5 vote and now goes to Gov. Doug Burgum. The state House of Representatives in February passed the bill unanimously. The bill states: “The governor may not issue an executive order that suspends or amends a provision in a statute, order, or rule relating to a state or local requirement regarding minimum number of physical polling places.” Burgum in 2020 signed an executive order waiving the requirement that counties provide at least one physical polling site for the June 2020 election due to the coronavirus pandemic. The House and Senate in 2021 had passed the previous bill, but the Senate reconsidered it and it failed by a single vote.

Full Article: North Dakota Senate OKs bill to ensure physical polling places – InForum | Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo news, weather and sports

North Dakota IT audit to include review of election tech | Benjamin Freed/StateScoop

The North Dakota State Auditor’s office this week launched an extensive review of many of the state’s IT assets, including the machines and electronic systems it uses to conduct elections. The process, State Auditor Joshua Gallion said in a press release, is designed to help the state government be “proactive in its defense against cyber threats.” The audit is part of IT assessments that North Dakota conducts every two years, costing about $450,000. Along with the election infrastructure, auditors will also look over the North Dakota Information Technology Department, particularly any systems related to the state’s unemployment insurance program and the 11-campus North Dakota University System. The audit will be the first extensive review of voting equipment North Dakota acquired in 2019. That year, Secretary of State Al Jaeger’s office purchased more than 900 new devices, including optical ballot scanners, devices for helping voters with disabilities to mark paper ballots and machines for counting absentee and mail ballots, though that inventory was not subject to the last biennial audit.

Full Article: North Dakota IT audit to include review of election tech

North Dakota IT probe to include state election system | Govt-and-politics | Mike McCleary/Bismarck Tribune

North Dakota’s election system will be included in a large-scale probe of the state’s information technology, a move the state auditor says is not an election audit of 2020 results. State Auditor Josh Gallion’s office is in contract negotiations for the statewide IT security assessment that will look at cybersecurity vulnerability including software, hardware and physical infrastructure. Gallion expects the work to begin around January and to conclude by October 2022. Contractors during the last assessment excluded the election system due to the November 2020 general election occurring at the time, he said. The probe is covered by a $450,000 budget item approved by the 2021 Legislature. Gallion said the IT assessments go back 10-12 years. He did acknowledge a “dialogue going on out there” from “certain groups” in favor of auditing the 2020 presidential election results in the wake of Republican Donald Trump’s reelection loss, such as in Arizona, which Democrat Joe Biden narrowly won. Trump took North Dakota with 65% of the vote.  The second-term Republican auditor said “this will not do that. We will not be auditing those results.”

Full Article: North Dakota IT probe to include state election system | Govt-and-politics | bismarcktribune.com

North Dakota Senate has passed a bill hiding presidential vote counts | Bob Port/Jamestown Sun

The fighting over close national elections can be vicious. We saw that last year in the heated battle between Joe Biden and Donald Trump where many of the latter’s supporters made claims of vote fraud. But it’s not a recent phenomenon. Turn back the clock and you find Democrats in the George W. Bush-era hatching conspiracy theories about Diebold voting machines.Given the reality of that sort of turbulence, does it make any sense to make the election process less transparent? Less open to public scrutiny?A bill before the Legislature in Bismarck would do just that. Senate Bill 2271, introduced by Sen. Robert Erbele, a Republican from Lehr, would hide the vote counts for North Dakota’s presidential elections from the public. State officials would still be allowed to release percentage figures representing the share of the vote each candidate got, but the actual vote numbers would be a secret until after the Electoral College votes from each state are cast. Surprised you haven’t heard of this bill? Don’t be. It hasn’t gotten much attention, despite having sailed through the Senate already on a lopsided 43-3 vote. It’s “almost a politburo situation from Soviet Russia,” Saul Anuzis said on this episode of Plain Talk. Anuzis is a long-time Republican leader – he led the Michigan GOP for years and was twice a candidate for chairman of the Republican National Committee – and of late is a proponent of an interstate compact promoting the national popular vote. He says Erbele’s bill is being pushed by a lobbyist opposed to the national popular vote, the idea being that North Dakota can’t participate in any national popular vote proposals if we don’t report our popular vote totals.

Full Article: Plain Talk: North Dakota Senate has passed a bill hiding presidential vote counts | Jamestown Sun

North Dakota activists race to turn out Indigenous vote despite mail-in ballot challenges | Adam Willis/The Dickinson Press

Sisters Joletta and Theodora Bird Bear live across from one another on a remote stretch of western North Dakota highway roughly 9 miles east of Mandaree, a town of about 600 people on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Their homes are just past a cluster of four roadside oil wells and before the recently paved intersection on the other side of the hill. “Don’t look at Google,” says Joletta when offering directions to her home. “You’ll end up somewhere 30 miles away.” Joletta and Theodora, Mandan Hidatsa members of the Three Affiliated Tribes, have spent most of their lives on rural Fort Berthold without street addresses that allow for easy mail delivery, nor mailboxes at the end of their long driveways. To pick up her mail, Joletta drives to the Mandaree post office, where for more than 20 years her mother worked as the town postmaster. When she retired, Joletta succeeded her. All told, the Bird Bears staffed the Mandaree post office — a place of unique importance on North Dakota’s tribal lands — for more than 40 years. With many homes like the Bird Bears’ lacking easily accessible addresses or regular route postal delivery, the post office provides a critical communication line and medical supply delivery to largely rural areas with below-average internet access and spotty cellphone coverage. For activist Nicole Donaghy, a Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock Sioux Nation and director at North Dakota Native Vote, an Indigenous voting rights group, the post office is “one of the very few lifelines that goes into a reservation.” It acts as a center of gravity for its region, a bedrock for community and a link to the country surrounding sovereign nations.Sisters Joletta and Theodora Bird Bear live across from one another on a remote stretch of western North Dakota highway roughly 9 miles east of Mandaree, a town of about 600 people on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Their homes are just past a cluster of four roadside oil wells and before the recently paved intersection on the other side of the hill. “Don’t look at Google,” says Joletta when offering directions to her home. “You’ll end up somewhere 30 miles away.” Joletta and Theodora, Mandan Hidatsa members of the Three Affiliated Tribes, have spent most of their lives on rural Fort Berthold without street addresses that allow for easy mail delivery, nor mailboxes at the end of their long driveways. To pick up her mail, Joletta drives to the Mandaree post office, where for more than 20 years her mother worked as the town postmaster. When she retired, Joletta succeeded her. All told, the Bird Bears staffed the Mandaree post office — a place of unique importance on North Dakota’s tribal lands — for more than 40 years. With many homes like the Bird Bears’ lacking easily accessible addresses or regular route postal delivery, the post office provides a critical communication line and medical supply delivery to largely rural areas with below-average internet access and spotty cellphone coverage. For activist Nicole Donaghy, a Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock Sioux Nation and director at North Dakota Native Vote, an Indigenous voting rights group, the post office is “one of the very few lifelines that goes into a reservation.” It acts as a center of gravity for its region, a bedrock for community and a link to the country surrounding sovereign nations.

North Dakota: After high turnout in pandemic primary, should mail-only voting be North Dakota’s new normal? | Adam Willis/The Dickinson Press

Roughly 158,000 North Dakotans voted in the recent June election, a strong turnout in a historic primary that relied solely on mail-in ballots. Vote-by-mail surged to the fore of national politics this primary season as the coronavirus pandemic had state governments scrambling to restructure their election systems. The outcomes were disastrous in several states, but North Dakota’s move to a completely vote-by-mail election stands out as a relative success. Not only did vote-by-mail reduce the risks for COVID-19 transmission in North Dakota, it also drew some of the highest voter turnout in state history. Among North Dakota primary elections, only 2012 saw higher numbers, with over 175,000 ballots cast. This month’s turnout prompts the question: Should North Dakota join a small group of states that vote exclusively by mail? Nationally, there are several kinds of vote-by-mail systems. Five states, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Hawaii and Colorado, have switched to universal vote-by-mail elections in which the government mails ballots to every registered voter. California recently passed its Voter Choice Act, which gives counties the option to mail ballots to voters while maintaining in-person polls. North Dakota’s mail-in system requires a few more steps. Here, voters must fill out a ballot application to receive their mail-in ballot, and the decision to automatically mail applications to voters is made on a county-by-county level.

North Dakota: Voter participation could hit all-time high among statewide June elections | David Olson/Grand Forks Herald

The Tuesday, June 9 election in North Dakota could historically rank among the top June elections when it comes to voter participation, county and state election officials said Monday. Tuesday’s vote — which is being conducted solely with mail-in ballots — is a primary election for state races and a general election when it comes to things like city and school board races. As of Monday afternoon, about 37,000 ballots had been mailed to Cass County voters and, of those, about 23,000 had been completed and returned to Cass County election officials. That put the voting on pace to surpass the 23,950 ballots cast during a June election in 2006, which stands as a high-water mark for June elections, according to DeAnn Buckhouse, election coordinator for Cass County. It is the first time Cass County has used mail-only voting. To be eligible for counting, Buckhouse said completed ballots returned by mail must be postmarked no later than June 8.

North Dakota: Judge grants order requiring notice, remedy process for mail-in ballots rejected for signature issues | David Olson/Grand Forks Herald

A federal judge has granted an injunction in a suit that sought protections for mail-in ballots that get rejected for signature issues. The injunction, granted Wednesday, June 3, bars North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger and other election officials from rejecting any mail-in ballot on the basis of a “signature mismatch” without having in place adequate notice and remedy procedures. The order is in place for the primary election set for Tuesday, June 9, and may apply to the general election on Nov. 3. The injunction was requested by the League of Women Voters of North Dakota and other plaintiffs, who argued that the state’s election process does not notify voters when their ballot is rejected due to a technical error such as a signature mismatch and that there is no method for voters to fix such situations.

North Dakota: All eligible voters to receive ballots by mail for June 9 primary | The Dickinson Press

North Dakota voters will be receiving their ballots by mail for the June 9 primary election, state officials announced Thursday, April 23. County commissions in all of the 53 counties have authorized vote by mail for the election as a measure to reduce the public’s risk of exposure to COVID-19, according to a release from the North Dakota Association of Counties. On March 26, Gov. Doug Burgum signed an executive order encouraging counties to use Vote by Mail for the June 9 election. The executive order suspends the requirement for counties to have at least one physical polling location. In response, every county has decided to administer the primary election by vote by mail only, and reservation counties have been working with tribal governments on the process, the release said.  No polling locations will be open for the primary election and all ballots will be issued through the mail.

North Dakota: Secretary of State hopes people participate in June mail-in election | Karassa Stinchcomb/KX News

Because of the coronavirus, this June’s election will be unlike any other in our state’s history. Counties are opting to conduct the election by mail with no physical polling places. “Polling locations will not be open because of the concern of the spread of the virus,” said Secretary of State Al Jaeger. Jaeger said preparations to have a wide-scale mail-in election began in March. 600,000 residents will receive voting applications by the end of this month. If you don’t receive that application form by May 1, contact your auditor as soon as possible. “Any individual who wants to vote in that election, we want to make sure that they have that ballot and are able to mark that ballot and to cast their vote,” said Jaeger.

North Dakota: Counties can hold June election via mail-in ballots only | Andrea Johnson/Minot Daily News

Gov. Doug Burgum issued an executive order Thursday that will enable counties to conduct the June 9 election by mail-in ballot only if they choose to do so. The order eliminates a requirement that counties maintain a physical polling location. Burgum announced at his daily briefing that the order is intended to protect the right of North Dakotans to vote and also to protect polling workers and voters from coronavirus if the pandemic is still a concern come June. Burgum also announced guidance that is intended to shore up child care providers in the state. Child care providers will be required to take extra steps to protect against the spread of the virus, such as making sure that there are no more than 10 people, including both adults and children, in a room at one time and staggering use of common areas to keep too many people from being in an area at once. Providers would also be required to limit access to the facility as much as possible and ask families questions about how they are feeling before a child is able to come into the facility.

North Dakota: New electronic pollbooks set to go out to North Dakota counties | Jack Dura/Bismarck Tribune

raining sessions on new electronic pollbooks are planned throughout the next week and a half for North Dakota election officials. The new devices — 990 of them — will be distributed to North Dakota’s 53 counties for use at polling locations after being delivered to the state in February. Pollbooks are records of voters of a precinct. The devices, which resemble an iPad, will speed up what has been a paper process for most counties in checking voters and add an element of security, according to North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger. “One of the things when it comes to election integrity is that once you come in and show your ID, that automatically goes back into our central voter file and so if you attempted to vote, let’s say, in Minot or drive up to Killdeer or some other place, they would know that you voted already,” Jaeger said Monday. North Dakota has no voter registration, but maintains a central voter file which is essentially a database of who has voted.

North Dakota: New ES&S voting equipment replaces 15-year-old machines | Grand Forks Herald

Grand Forks County has received most of its new election equipment, which replaces voting machines that are about 15 years old. The Legislature authorized $8.2 million for the new machines to add to the $3 million in federal funds doled out to assist in the purchase. According to County Auditor Debbie Nelson, the equipment arrived two weeks ago and includes 40 new optical scanners, 40 new ExpressVote machines, which are unassisted voting machines, and a new central count machine was received as well. Electronic poll books have yet to arrive. The optical scanners are part of the vote counting process, according to Nelson. m“When people mark their ballot, they bring it over to the scanner to be counted,” she said. The voting machines, which are used to mark ballots, can be used by anyone. However, if any voters have difficulty seeing a ballot, they have the option of having it read to them. The central count machine is a faster ballot counting machine.

North Dakota: New election equipment going out to counties | Jack Dura/Bismarck Tribune

Burleigh County has received new election equipment being distributed to North Dakota counties over the next few weeks by state election officials. Auditor/Treasurer Kevin Glatt said the county on Monday received 50 ballot scanners, 50 accessibility devices for voters who may have difficulty marking ballots and one central scanner for tabulating absentee ballots. The equipment vendor is now testing the devices after delivery before formal training in September.  “We’re excited that we have them,” Glatt said. Morton County Auditor Dawn Rhone said she expects the new machines, including 18 ballot scanners, this week, likely on Thursday after the old machines are taken away Wednesday from the courthouse in Mandan. The secretary of state’s office in 2015 pressed the Legislature for new election equipment, but funding priorities didn’t favor the request, especially during deep budget cuts in 2017.

North Dakota: New voting machines being ‘put through the paces’ | Prairie Public Broadcasting

New voting machines for North Dakota are set up in a room at the Capitol. “We’re putting them through the paces, said Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum. “We want to make sure they can handle our open primary, and any election we would throw at it.” It is the Secretary of State’s job to certify the new devices, and de-certify the devices that are no longer used. Silrum said the contract to finalize the purchase of the new devices will likely be finished by the end of the week, and the plan is to have all the devices in Bismarck by the end of July. After that, county election officials will be trained on them.