BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum stopped short of mandating that all polling places close during the state’s June 9 primary election, despite being urged by county auditors to do so out of concern for poll workers and the public amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki said the governor wanted to give counties the option of having open polling places.
“The bottom line is the governor wanted to provide flexibility to the counties to decide if they wanted to do mail-ballot-only elections based on their individual circumstances,” Nowatzki said.
Conducting elections safely amidst the coronavirus has become an issue nationwide, most notably last week in Wisconsin, where Republicans insisted on holding in-person voting despite widespread health fears.
It’s not clear who has the authority to change the format of an election in North Dakota. And state’s top two Republicans say they think the decision should be left to counties.
Burgum, at the request of the North Dakota County Auditors Association, signed an executive order last month waiving the requirement that counties have at least one physical polling site for the June election, while allowing counties to conduct the primary election entirely by mail.
The association also asked that for “public safety reasons, it is our request that no polling locations be open on June 9th,” the letter said.
Donnell Preskey Hushka, the group’s executive director, said she still believes no counties would have a polling place.
Secretary of State Al Jaeger said his staff has been in contact with county auditors and “at this particular point, I’d be very surprised if any county has a polling location.”
It’s unclear if the governor could have required a shutdown of polling places under current law, said John Bjornson, director of the Legislative Council, the Legislature’s research arm.
“There is no precedent here,” Bjornson said. “We have not done an analysis of that.”
Bjornson said the executive branch has the power to suspend laws but not change laws.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner said he “wouldn’t have had a problem” if Burgum had mandated a closure of all polling places for the June primary. But he also said he wouldn’t protest if counties decided to open polling places.
Chet Pollert, Wardner’s GOP counterpart in the House, agreed that it should be left up to the counties whether to open polling places.
Voters in all counties now have the option of vote by mail and should use that if they fear going to a polling site, should some open, Pollert said.
Jaeger said some 598,000 applications to request a ballot for the June election will be mailed in the next few days. The cost for the mailings and postage is about $310,000 and will be covered by a federal grant.
North Dakota has no voter registration. The voter applications are based on driver’s license data and from a database of voters who have cast ballots in the past.
Postage is covered for voters sending in applications but the cost of mailing the ballot once it’s received must be covered by the voter, Jaeger said.
Nicole Donaghy, executive director of North Dakota Native Vote, said voting by mail will likely hurt turnout on state’s five American Indian reservations. But she said “it’s the right call” for counties to close polling locations.
“There is too much risk involved there,” she said.
Donaghy said the vote-by-mail system still presents challenges to Native American voters, including the requirement to pay postage to mail in a ballot.
Preskey, of the auditors’ association, said all counties are working to establish secure drop boxes so that postage is not necessary.
Jaeger said an extensive outreach effort is planned about the change in the primary voting procedures.
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