BISMARCK – A bill to give the North Dakota Secretary of State more authority in the petition process has passed the State Senate.
House Bill 1324 would require the Secretary of State to use discretion over the random sampling process as to the validity of signatures for an initiated ballot measure. If the SOS determines a petition to be insufficient and blocks the measure from being placed on the ballot, the bill would make that action lawful unless rebutted by clear and convincing evidence.
“The clear and convincing evidence standard means that the evidence is highly, substantially more likely to be true than untrue according to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling,” said Sen. Judy Lee, R-Dis. R-Dis. 13, West Fargo. “Your State and Local Government committee unanimously supported 1324 for clarifying the situation of approval of signatures and asks the Senate to concur.”
This comes after the North Dakota Supreme Court, in September, overturned a District Court ruling which was in favor of the SOS who threw out 29,000 signatures for the term limits measure.
HB1324 passed the Senate by a vote of 43 to 3, the House by a vote of 92 to 1, and will be sent to the governor for consideration.
