(Bismarck, ND) -- A top election official is calling out a proposed ballot petition, saying it will make voting less secure.
The comments come from North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe based on an election petition submitted to his office earlier this year. The bill would prohibit early voting, electronic ballot counting, voting machines, laws limiting how people circulating of petitions can be paid, and unsupervised public drop boxes. It also would require ballots to be counted by hand.
“People of North Dakota have every right to petition for whatever they want, and I think that’s a good process, but I fail to see what’s wrong about our election process here and need a complete overhaul like the one they have proposed,” Howe said in an interview with the North Dakota Monitor. "“Getting the results in a timely manner will not happen and the chance of human error increases as well."
The Election Integrity Act, sponsored by former ND Secretary of State candidate Charles Tuttle in the 2022 election, called for several changes to the voting process, including the elimination of mail-in voting and vote-counting machines. The bill also included barcodes on ballots to ensure accountability in elections.
You can read more about the Election Integrity Act by clicking here.