North Dakota Secretary of State
From Ballotpedia
The Secretary of State of North Dakota has multiple responsibilities in the areas of elections, business, licensing and maintaining a central indexing system. The office maintains the Great Seal of North Dakota and other state official documents, as well as legislative and gubernatorial acts.
The current Secretary of State for North Dakota is Al Jaeger.
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Role in the in the initiative and referral process
Article III Section 1 of the North Dakota Constitution guarantees the residents of the state "to propose and enact laws" through an initiative, "approve or reject legislative Acts" through a referral and "recall certain elected officials" [1]. There are two types of initiatives: a statutory initiative and a constitutional initiative. The statutory initiative seeks to amend or enact a statute of the North Dakota Century Code, while the constitutional initiative seeks to amend or enact portions of the state constitution [2]. It is the role of the Secretary of State to receive and file petitions for referrals and initiatives.
A sponsoring committee is needed to submit the petition for an initiative or referral to the Secretary of State. The committee is to be composed of at least 25 or more qualified state voters. A qualified state voter is one who is: at least 18 years of age, a citizen of the United States, a legal resident of the state and a resident of the affected precinct at least 30 days before the election. The final draft of the petition and a completed notarized affidavit of the members of the sponsoring committee must be submitted to the Secretary of State. The final draft must include a ballot title, which is a brief statement that adequately represents the focus of the petition. This ballot title is used by the Secretary of State to submit the petition and affidavits to the state Attorney General.
The Attorney General and the Secretary of State have 5-7 business days to deny or approve the petition on grounds of "style and legal form" [2]. Once approved the petition may be circulated for signatures.
Referrals
According the North Dakota law, the required number of signatures to refer state legislation to statewide election must be collected and filed within 90 days after the legislation has been filed with the Secretary of State. This 90 day period includes the 5-7 business days taken by the Secretary of State and Attorney General to approve the petition. The 90 day period ends at midnight of the 90th day. Since the office hours of the Secretary of State are limited (at the time of writing the Secretary of State's office hours end at 5pm) the sponsoring committee must arrange with the Secretary of State's office if petition signatures and a notarized affidavit of the person representing the committee is to be submitted after office hours. The affidavit informs the Secretary of State that the required number of signatures for the petition are submitted to the best of the committee representative's knowledge.
The number of signatures for a referral is 2% of the state's population, based on the last federal government census. At the time of writing the state has a population of 642,200. and thus the number of signatures required for a referral of state legislation is 12,844.
If the signatures are approved by the Secretary of State, the vote on the specified state legislation will take place on the next statewide election or on a state Governor=called special election.
Initiative
The required number of signatures for an initiative to appear on statewide elections must be filed with the Secretary of State within one year from the approval of the initiative by the Secretary of State. If the special committee wished to see the initiative at a specific statewide election the required number of signatures and the committee representative's notarized affidavit must be submitted no less than 90 days before the scheduled date of that election.
The number of signatures for a statutory initiative is 2% of the state's population, based on the last federal government census. At the time of writing the number of signatures is 12,844. The number of signatures for a constitutional initiative is 4% of the state's population, based on the last federal government census. At the time of writing this figure is 25,688.
Signature review
The Secretary of State has 35 days to review the petition's signatures through the use of a representative random sample. Any violations of North Dakota law are reported by the Secretary of State to the Attorney General for further investigation and prosecution.
Financial disclosure laws
There are several financial disclosure laws that affect those groups and individuals associated with (both for and against) the referral or initiative petitions. Please see the Initiating and Referral Law in North Dakota for information. Also check with the appropriate sections of the North Dakota Century Code for further information.
Contact information
Al Jaeger
Secretary of State
State of North Dakota
600 E Boulevard Ave Dept 108, 1st Floor
Bismarck ND 58505-0500
Telephone: 701-328-2900
Toll Free: 800-352-0867
TTY: 800-366-6888
Fax: 701-328-2992
Email: sos@nd.gov
Elections Division
Telephone: 701-328-4146
Toll Free: 800-352-0867 ext. 8-4146
TTY: 800-366-6888
Fax: 701-328-2992
Email: soselect@nd.gov
See Also:
References
External Links
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