Jason Snead, Executive Director of Honest Elections Project Action, released the following statement:
“Honest Elections Project Action calls on the North Dakota legislature to override Governor Burgum’s veto of a commonsense bill to ban ranked choice voting and approval voting. The Governor is correct that federalism is a key component of our constitutional republic. But the relationship between cities and states is different from the relationship between states and Washington, D.C. States create cities, and there are good reasons to prevent cities from making changes to voting laws that radically differ from the rest of the state.
“Local control makes sense for many issues, but voting policies are another thing entirely. States have a strong interest in ensuring uniform election rules within their boundaries in order to maintain voters’ trust, guarantee equal access to the ballot, and run elections efficiently.
“Substantively, ranked-choice voting is a convoluted process that confuses voters, disenfranchises voters, and promotes distrust in the electoral process. It is our hope that the state legislature will override the governor’s veto on this legislation to ensure consistency in North Dakota’s election rules.”