The Independent View: North Dakota's Version of Voting

North Dakota is unique in that this is the only state in the entire country that does not require its residents to register in order to cast a ballot on Election Day. Some people say with North Dakota’s voter ID law, there is de-facto voter registration already in place, in that a voter needs to present a valid photo ID to an election worker at the voting site before the person is allowed to vote.

North Dakota did require its voters to register from 1895 until 1951, when the Legislature repealed the statewide voter registration mandate.

According to the North Dakota Secretary of State’s website: “In the majority of the legislative sessions between 1957 and 1975, unsuccessful attempts were made to pass legislation again requiring mandatory statewide voter registration. In 1975 a bill requiring registration passed by a vote of 56 to 41 in the House and 27 to 19 in the Senate.” then-Gov. Art Link vetoed the bill.

North Dakota law currently requires that there be open primary elections. However, without voter registration, there is no way of preventing someone who identifies with the Republican Party from voting in the Democratic Party primary and vice versa.

If North Dakota were to reenact voter registration, political party's say they would get the assurance that only registered party members would be able to vote in their Primary.

With voter registration in place, this would also ensure that the master database of voters, which is maintained by the secretary of state’s office, as well as precinct voter lists that are maintained by the county auditors would be as up to date as these could possibly be. Although, many county auditors across the state might bristle at being given an additional responsibility. However, voter registration would merely be another step in a process that they are already overseeing.

A North Dakota interim legislative committee is currently studying North Dakota’s voting system between sessions. Among the committee’s tasks will be to make a recommendation to the 2017 Legislative Assembly as to whether voter registration should be reinstated in the state.