BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - A group submitted a proposed ballot measure Tuesday that aims to raise the approval threshold for changing the North Dakota Constitution through the state’s citizen-initiative process.
The citizen-led Protect North Dakota’s Constitution wants to change voter approval of constitutional amendments from a simple majority to 60%. The petition, submitted to Secretary of State Al Jaeger following a press conference at the state Capitol, also seeks to limit ballot measures to a single issue.
Retired Maj. Gen. Michael Haugen, a previous adjutant general of the North Dakota National Guard and former member of the state Board of Higher Education, is co-chairman of the group.
Haugen, who lives in Fargo, said constitutional amendments have been put before voters in every election cycle for more than a decade, Often, he said, they have contained “confusing language that addresses multiple issues” and are routinely backed by out-of-state interests.
Citizen initiatives allow residents to bypass lawmakers and get proposed state laws and constitutional amendments on ballots if they gather enough signatures from voters. North Dakota is among about two dozen states with some form of an initiative proc
Co-chair Jeffrey Zarling of Williston said group believes the effort will “improve transparency of future measures and will ensure initiatives added to the constitution will be well-conceived and overwhelmingly supported by North Dakotans.”
Supporters will need to get signatures from about 31,000 North Dakota voters over the next year to put the measure on the November 2022 ballot.
Backers said they expect to spend up to $1 million on the effort, which includes paying people to gather the signatures.
North Dakota lawmakers have long been critical of the citizen-initiative process. The Legislature began studying it in 2017, a move spurred largely by voters’ surprise approval of medicinal marijuana and another successful ballot measure funded almost solely by California billionaire that amended the ultra-conservative state’s constitution.
North Dakota’s Republican-led Legislature in 2019 referred its own constitutional amendment to the ballot that asked whether the Legislature should have the power to review and approve citizen-initiated constitutional amendments.
Voters in November soundly defeated the measure that critics said amounted to giving legislators veto power over citizen initiatives.
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