Citizens in Charge

Measure 1, a constitutional amendment that moves the initiative petition deadline up 30 days – to just before the North Dakota state fair, so that initiative sponsors lose that very important meeting place for gathering signatures – passed narrowly yesterday in a very low turnout primary election.

State legislators introduced the amendment as HCR 3034 and passed it at the request of long-serving Secretary of State Al Jaeger, who argued his office needed more time to review petitions and that more time was also necessary to accommodate legal challenges to ballot measures.

Opponents, including the Bismarck Tribune, argued the measure was a solution in search of a problem. Citizens in Charge opposed Measure 1 both because it isn’t needed and because it will make the petition process more arduous and expensive for citizens.

Measure 1 passed 53.6 percent to 46.4 percent in North Dakota’s lowest voter turnout June primary in more than three decades. Only 17 percent of the electorate voted and barely 8 percent of the state’s voters cast ballots in favor of Measure 1.

This November, voters will decide the fate of another legislatively referred constitutional amendment, Measure 4, which would completely block citizens from petitioning for any initiative constitutional amendment that carried any cost at all to state government.

Inforum: ND voter turnout lowest for June election since at least 1980
http://www.inforum.com/content/nd-voter-turnout-lowest-june-election-lea…

Election results can be found here: http://results.sos.nd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?text=BQ&type=SW&map=CTY

Ballotpedia: ND’s Measure 4
http://ballotpedia.org/North_Dakota_Referral_and_Initiative_Reform_Amendment,_Measure_4_%282014%29