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North Dakota Supreme Court elections, 2016
| 2016 State Judicial Elections |
|---|
 |
| Part 1: Overview |
| Part 2: Supreme Courts |
| Part 3: Partisanship |
| Part 4: Changes in 2016 |
Two seats on the North Dakota Supreme Court were up for election on November 8, 2016. A primary was held on June 14. These seats were held by Justice Dale Sandstrom and Justice Lisa Fair McEvers heading into the election.
In North Dakota, all judicial candidates, even if unopposed or opposed by only one candidate, stand in the primary election. The top two finishers for any one seat advance to the general election. Two candidates, Judge Jerod Tufte and Robert V. Bolinske, Sr., were vying for Justice Sandstrom's seat. Justice McEvers ran unopposed. All three candidates for the two seats advanced through the June 14 primary to the November 8 general election.
The candidate elected to Sandstrom's seat will serve a full ten-year term. McEvers ran for election to the remainder of the term of her predecessor, Mary Muehlen Maring, which expires in December 2018.
General election candidates
Dale Sandstrom's seat
- Dale Sandstrom did not run for re-election in 2016.
■ Jerod Tufte 
■ Robert V. Bolinske, Sr.
Lisa McEvers' seat
■ Lisa Fair McEvers (Incumbent/Unopposed)
Election results
November 8 general election
| North Dakota Supreme Court 2016, Sandstrom's Seat, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Jerod Tufte |
60.69% | 166,229 |
| Robert V. Bolinske Sr. | 38.63% | 105,805 |
| Write-in votes | 0.68% | 1,851 |
| Total Votes (432 of 432 precincts reporting: 100%) | 273,885 | |
| Source: North Dakota Secretary of State Official Results | ||
| North Dakota Supreme Court 2016, McEvers' Seat, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Lisa Fair McEvers Incumbent (unopposed) |
98.98% | 261,255 |
| Write-in votes | 1.02% | 2,700 |
| Total Votes (433 of 432 precincts reporting: 100%) | 263,955 | |
| Source: North Dakota Secretary of State Official Results | ||
June 14 primary
| North Dakota Supreme Court Primary, Dale Sandstrom's Seat, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Jerod Tufte |
55.03% | 54,107 |
| Robert V. Bolinske Sr. |
44.65% | 43,899 |
| Write-in votes | 0.32% | 311 |
| Total Votes | 98,317 | |
| Source: North Dakota Secretary of State | ||
| North Dakota Supreme Court Primary, Lisa McEvers' Seat, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Lisa Fair McEvers Incumbent (unopposed) |
99.67% | 98,203 |
| Write-in votes | 0.33% | 330 |
| Total Votes | 98,533 | |
| Source: North Dakota Secretary of State | ||
Forums and debates
Sept. 22, Cass County Bar Association meeting
On Sept. 22, 2016, the Cass County Bar Association hosted a forum for candidates Jerod Tufte and Robert V. Bolinske, Sr.. At the start of the candidate introductions, Bolinske took issue with the mention of the State Bar Association of North Dakota recommendations, in which member attorneys rated Tufte higher than Bolinske. Bolinske said that the association ratings were "flawed" and "jiggered." He said, "[I]t made me mad."[1] According to the Bismarck Tribune, Bolinske also accused Tufte of contacting friends to puff up his survey results and said to Tufte, "I wouldn't trust you as far as I could throw you."[1] When asked whether his words and actions called his temperament into question, the Tribune records Bolinske's response as, "Temperament, smemperament. What did Jesus do when he chased the thieves out of the temple? … Well, it was a just thing." Bolinske also said, "You can tell I go from zero to 60 pretty quickly."[1]
Bar Association recommendations
In June 2016, the State Bar Association of North Dakota released the results of its 2016 judicial survey. The number of valid responses to the survey questions was 248. Attorneys were asked to rate specific qualifications of judicial candidates on a scale of 1-5, with 1 the lowest and 5 the highest. The responses were averaged and the average reported for each candidate in each category. Survey respondents were asked to refrain from giving an answer in a category if they did not have enough information to do so. The averages for Jerod Tufte and Robert V. Bolinske, Sr. are reported below. The number of respondents choosing not to give answers on a particular candidate in a particular category is in parentheses next to the average. The number of respondents choosing not to give any answers, in any category, on a particular candidate is in the last column.
| State Bar Association of North Dakota Judicial Survey Results, 2016 | ||||||
| Candidate | Professional Competence |
Legal Experience | Judicial Temperament | Integrity | Average | No Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robert V. Bolinske, Sr. | 2.99 (69 no ans.) | 3.54 (58 no ans.) | 2.50 (67 no ans.) | 2.92 (73 no ans.) | 2.99 | 41 |
| Jerod Tufte | 4.04 (51 no ans.) | 3.52 (49 no ans.) | 4.05 (54 no ans.) | 4.22 (53 no ans.) | 3.96 | 37 |
| Source: | State Bar Association of North Dakota | |||||
Campaign finance
- Note: North Dakota does not publicly report expenditures or make viewable the filed paper campaign finance reports.
| Jerod Tufte Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| Pre-Primary | 5/12/2016 | $0.00 | $19,386.03 | Unknown | $14,493.04 | ||||
| Pre-General Amendment | 10/5/2016 | $0.00 | $38,719.21 | Unknown | $5,528.25 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $58,105.24 | $(0) | ||||||||
| Robert V. Bolinske, Sr. Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| Pre-Primary | 5/13/2016 | $0.00 | $0.00 | Unknown | $0.00 | ||||
| Pre-General | 10/7/2016 | $0.00 | $640.00 | Unknown | $143.00 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $640 | $(0) | ||||||||
| Lisa Fair McEvers Campaign Finance Reports | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Report | Date Filed | Beginning Balance | Total Contributions for Reporting Period | Expenditures | Cash on Hand | ||||
| Pre-Primary | 5/12/2016 | $0.00 | $0.00 | Unknown | $591.83 | ||||
| Pre-General | 10/4/2016 | $0.00 | $0.00 | Unknown | $591.83 | ||||
| Running totals | |||||||||
| $0 | $(0) | ||||||||
The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may not represent all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer, and campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Endorsements
| Endorsements | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jerod Tufte | Robert V. Bolinske Sr. | ||||||||
| Jake Rodenbiker, McKenzie County State's Attorney | *** | ||||||||
| What is a key endorsement? | |||||||||
- ***Ballotpedia is not aware of any endorsements for this candidate. Do you know of any endorsements for any of the three candidates? Let us know!
Ads
Ballotpedia was unable to locate online campaign advertisements for this race.
Political composition
North Dakota's supreme court justices are elected in nonpartisan elections. Justice Carol Ronning Kapsner, Justice Daniel Crothers and Justice Lisa Fair McEvers were appointed by Republican governors to fill vacancies on the court. Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle was appointed by Gov. Arthur Link (D) in 1978 and Justice Dale Sandstrom was elected to the court.
Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle
Justice Dale Sandstrom
Justice Carol Ronning Kapsner
Justice Daniel Crothers
Justice Lisa Fair McEvers
Selection
- See also: Judicial selection in North Dakota
The five justices on the court are elected to 10-year terms in nonpartisan elections.[2]
Political outlook
In October 2012, political science professors Adam Bonica and Michael Woodruff of Stanford University attempted to determine the partisan outlook of state supreme court justices in their paper, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns." A score above 0 indicated a more conservative-leaning ideology while scores below 0 were more liberal. The state Supreme Court of North Dakota was given a campaign finance score (CFscore), which was calculated for judges in October 2012. At that time, North Dakota received a score of 1.00. Based on the justices selected, North Dakota was the 2nd most conservative court. The study was based on data from campaign contributions by judges themselves, the partisan leaning of contributors to the judges, or—in the absence of elections—the ideology of the appointing body (governor or legislature). This study was not a definitive label of a justice but rather an academic gauge of various factors.[3]
Qualifications
| “ | Supreme court justices and district court judges shall be citizens of the United States and residents of this state, shall be learned in the law, and shall possess any additional qualifications prescribed by law.[4] | ” |
| —North Dakota Constitution[5] | ||
State profile
| Demographic data for North Dakota | ||
|---|---|---|
| North Dakota | U.S. | |
| Total population: | 756,835 | 316,515,021 |
| Land area (sq mi): | 69,001 | 3,531,905 |
| Race and ethnicity** | ||
| White: | 88.7% | 73.6% |
| Black/African American: | 1.6% | 12.6% |
| Asian: | 1.2% | 5.1% |
| Native American: | 5.3% | 0.8% |
| Pacific Islander: | 0% | 0.2% |
| Two or more: | 2.2% | 3% |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 2.9% | 17.1% |
| Education | ||
| High school graduation rate: | 91.7% | 86.7% |
| College graduation rate: | 27.7% | 29.8% |
| Income | ||
| Median household income: | $57,181 | $53,889 |
| Persons below poverty level: | 12.2% | 11.3% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in North Dakota. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here. | ||
Presidential voting pattern
North Dakota voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.
Pivot Counties (2016)
Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, four are located in North Dakota, accounting for 1.94 percent of the total pivot counties.[6]
Pivot Counties (2020)
In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. North Dakota had three Retained Pivot Counties, 1.66 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.
More North Dakota coverage on Ballotpedia
- Elections in North Dakota
- United States congressional delegations from North Dakota
- Public policy in North Dakota
- Endorsers in North Dakota
- North Dakota fact checks
- More...
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'North Dakota Supreme Court election' OR 'North Dakota judicial elections' OR 'North Dakota court elections 2016'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Bismarck Tribune, "In tirade at Fargo meeting, N.D. Supreme Court candidate challenges opponent: ‘Let’s get it on’," October 4, 2016
- ↑ North Dakota Courts, "A Historical Sketch of the Supreme Court of the Dakota Territory and North Dakota Supreme Court," accessed December 3, 2014
- ↑ Stanford University, "State Supreme Court Ideology and 'New Style' Judicial Campaigns," October 31, 2012
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ North Dakota Legislature, "North Dakota Constitution," accessed May 4, 2015
- ↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
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Federal courts:
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of North Dakota • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of North Dakota
State courts:
North Dakota Supreme Court • North Dakota Court of Appeals • North Dakota District Courts • North Dakota Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in North Dakota • North Dakota judicial elections • Judicial selection in North Dakota
