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.”
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