No eligible, valid voter in the state of North Dakota should be turned away from the polls. Unfortunately, that happened to a small percentage of people on Election Day. In some cases, individuals had not taken the steps necessary to be able to prove residency with a valid ID. Some had recently updated their driver’s licenses, but failed to change their address with the North Dakota Department of Transportation soon enough to show they had been a resident for at least 30 days. In some parts of the state, students were turned away from the polls because they lacked an ID with the current address or an official student certificate. In these instances, it appears the individuals lacked knowledge of the deadlines and proper procedures to be able to prove their residency and vote on Election Day. However, in other instances, voters who say they took all of the proper steps were still turned away from the polls.
In news stories in the Bismarck Tribune and on Prairie Public Radio, voters said they had taken all of the proper steps: changed their addresses with DOT and updated their driver’s licenses prior to Election Day. Still, they were turned away from the polls in Burleigh County.
It is unclear how the error occurred, but it appears Burleigh County did not have updated records from DOT.
Full Article: Voting in N.D. wasn’t ‘as easy as pie’.