By: Michael Achterling (North Dakota Monitor)
A bill that expands North Dakota law against false political advertisements via social media, text messages or phone calls passed the Senate on Wednesday.
House Bill 1204, sponsored by Rep. Mike Schatz, R-New England, passed on a 45-1 vote and will be sent back to the House for approval of an amendment introduced by Sen. Sean Cleary, R-Bismarck. The amendment added text messages and phone calls to the original bill that included social and commercial media posts.
“As election communications evolve, I think our laws need to change with it,” Cleary said.
Cleary was the campaign manager for U.S. House of Representatives candidate Julie Fedorchak during the 2024 election. On the day of the primary election, anonymous text messages were sent to North Dakota voters saying she had dropped out of the race, which she did not.
After news of the text messages broke, Fedorchak called a press conference and said, “This is, at minimum, election fraud, and it’s a desperate tactic to influence and discourage voters.”
Fedorchak won the primary that night with 46% of the vote, beating four other candidates for the Republican nomination and now represents North Dakota in Congress.
“Knowingly spreading falsehoods about an opponent undermines the integrity of our elections,” Cleary said. “As you can see in the current law, there is a phrase ‘electronic transmission,’ but given the expansion and use of these in communicating with voters, I felt it was appropriate to make that explicitly clear in Century Code.”
During debate on the bill, Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, asked the bill’s carrier, Sen. Ryan Braunberger, D-Fargo, who would make the determination on what is “deceptive” or “misleading” for those communications.
Braunberger responded that a state’s attorney’s office and, if warranted, a court would make that determination.
If the House agrees to Cleary’s amendment, the bill would head to the House floor for a final vote before going to the governor’s desk for his signature. A disagreement on the amendment would lead to the bill being debated by a conference committee between the House and Senate.
