North Dakota Initiative and Referendum Process Measure (2020)
| North Dakota Initiative and Referendum Process Measure | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 2020 | |
| Topic Direct democracy measures | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The North Dakota Initiative and Referendum Process Measure was not on the ballot in North Dakota as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 3, 2020.
Measure design
This measure would have prohibited the state legislature from submitting a constitutional amendment to the voters that (1) would alter citizens' direct democracy (initiative and referendum) powers or (2) is considered a duplicate of a constitutional amendment that was approved by the voters in the last seven years. The measure would have also provided that the state supreme court would have original jurisdiction over "any state law that impacts the Article III powers reserved to the people" relating to the initiative, referendum, and recall process.[1]
Text of measure
Ballot title
| Ballot title | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Full text
- The full text of the referendum petition is available here.
Background
The state legislature placed a measure on the 2020 ballot to require initiated constitutional amendments passed by voters to be submitted to the legislature for approval and in the case of rejection, require the measure to be placed on the ballot again at the next statewide general election to become effective if approved by the voters a second time.
Path to the ballot
The state process
In North Dakota, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated constitutional amendment for the ballot is equal to 4 percent of the population of the state. North Dakota is unique in using the population to determine signature requirements for initiatives and referendums. Petitioners may circulate a petition for one year following the secretary of state's initial approval. The signatures must be submitted at least 120 days prior to the election.
The requirements to get an initiated constitutional amendment certified for the 2020 ballot:
- Signatures: 26,904 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: Each initiative has its own signature deadline of one year after it was approved for circulation. The final deadline to submit signatures regardless of a petition's approval date was July 6, 2020.
Once the signatures have been gathered, the secretary of state verifies them using a random sample method. Since North Dakota does not have a voter registration system, the secretary of state may use "questionnaires, postcards, telephone calls, personal interviews, or other accepted information-gathering techniques" to verify the selected signatures.
To appear on the November 2020 ballot, signatures for this initiative were due on June 8, 2020.
Details about this initiative
- Dustin Gawrylow, Managing Director of the North Dakota Watchdog Network, is the chairperson of the referendum's sponsoring committee.[1][3]
- Sponsors did not submit signatures by the June 8, 2020, deadline.[4]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 North Dakota Secretary of State, "Initiative petition," accessed June 10, 2019
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ KFGO, "Dustin Gawrylow w/ND Watchdog Network talks ethics measures," accessed June 10, 2019
- ↑ North Dakota Secretary of State, "Ballot Petitions under Signature Review," accessed June 10, 2020
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