Bismarck — North Dakota Term Limits announced that it has submitted more than 46,000 required signatures to send a term limits measure for governor and state lawmakers to the ballot this November. North Dakota law requires only 31,164 signatures for a measure to be put on the state ballot.
The more than 46,000 signatures submitted by North Dakota Term Limits surpassed any ever submitted for an initiative in North Dakota’s history. North Dakota Term Limits initially filed the proposed ballot measure in June 2021.
North Dakota Term Limits is a grassroots organization with a 42-member committee that includes current and former members of the North Dakota state legislature.
“It’s about the principle of term limits,” said Jared Hendrix, the North Dakota Term limits chair. “It’s a long-term structural change. Polling data we have shows that this is a popular issue across the political spectrum.”
The proposed constitutional measure would restrict the North Dakota governor to two four-year terms and state legislators to eight years, or two terms, in each house. That adds up to a combined 16 years in the state legislature, whether consecutive or cumulative. If approved by voters, term limits would be effective Jan. 1, 2023. Term limits would not be retroactive — meaning the service of current officeholders would not count against them. The measure would bar the legislature from proposing amendments to alter or repeal the term limits; only citizens would be able to do so.
If passed, it would make North Dakota the 36th state to term limit its governor and the 16th to implement state legislative term limits joining ranks with Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Dakota.
