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Read. Follow. Verify.North Dakota updates election practices, absentee ballot deadlines, and candidate filing rules under HB 1165
Last action · April 30, 2025: Filed with Secretary Of State 04/28Sponsors: Scott Louser and 11 others
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What This Bill Does
North Dakota revises state election laws by updating deadlines for absentee and military-overseas ballots, prohibiting private donations for election administration, and modifying candidate petition and ballot rotation procedures. The measure takes effect following legislative approval and executive enactment.
Changes how voters submit absentee and mail ballots, sets new deadlines for write-in and district supervisor candidates, and bans local governments from accepting private funding for election operations.
Who It Affects
Groups the bill's text affects, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
County auditors
Must adjust ballot preparation, manage new ballot receipt deadlines, and ensure compliance with updated candidate filing and rotation rules.
Voters casting absentee or mail ballots
Subject to new deadlines and delivery rules for submitting absentee and mail-in ballots.
Candidates for public office
Subject to updated filing dates and petition requirements for nominating petitions and write-in candidacies.
Key Facts
- Prohibits the state and political subdivisions from soliciting, accepting, or using private grants or donations for election operations or administration, with limited exceptions for privately owned polling facilities and food for poll workers.
- Provides that an individual who knowingly violates the prohibition against private election funding is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.
- Requires mailed absent voter's ballots to be received by the officer by the close of polls on election day to be tallied.
- Allows an absent voter to personally deliver their ballot to the appropriate officer's office at any time before the close of polls on the day before election day.
Show all 9 facts
- Establishes that military-overseas ballots must be submitted for mailing not later than 11:59 p.m. on the day before the close of polls on election day.
- Sets the final filing date for district supervisor nominating petitions to no later than four p.m. sixty-four days before the day of the election.
- Mandates that write-in candidates for any legislative district office file a certificate of write-in candidacy with the secretary of state by four p.m. on the twenty-first day before the election.
- Directs that candidate names on official ballots be alternated using an approved secretary of state algorithm to ensure fair distribution across precinct positions.
- Repeals sections 16.1-07-30 and 40-21-10 of the North Dakota Century Code relating to election notices and municipal voter registration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can local election offices accept private donations to help run elections?
When must mailed absentee ballots arrive to be counted?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Current status: Signed into law.
Procedural history
22 actions- Apr 30, 2025Filed with Secretary Of State 04/28
- Apr 29, 2025HouseEnrolledSigned by Governor 04/28
- Apr 25, 2025HouseEnrolledSent to Governor
- Apr 25, 2025HouseSigned by Speaker
- Apr 22, 2025SenateSigned by President
- Apr 21, 2025HouseFloorSecond reading, passed, yeas 85 nays 7
Show 16 earlier actions
- Apr 21, 2025HouseConcurred
- Apr 14, 2025HouseReturned to House (12)
- Apr 14, 2025SenateFloorSecond reading, passed as amended, yeas 43 nays 4
- Apr 14, 2025SenateCommitteeAmendment adopted, placed on calendar
- Apr 11, 2025SenateCommitteeReported back amended, do pass, amendment placed on calendar 5 1 0
- Mar 26, 2025SenateRereferred to State and Local Government
- Mar 25, 2025SenateCommitteeAmendment adopted, placed on calendar
- Mar 24, 2025SenateCommitteeReported back amended, do pass, amendment placed on calendar 5 0 1
- Mar 21, 2025SenateCommitteeCommittee Hearing 09:40
- Feb 13, 2025SenateIntroducedIntroduced, first reading, referred State and Local Government Committee
- Jan 29, 2025SenateReceived from House
- Jan 28, 2025HouseFloorSecond reading, passed, yeas 90 nays 2
- Jan 27, 2025HouseCommitteeAmendment adopted, placed on calendar
- Jan 24, 2025HouseCommitteeReported back amended, do pass, amendment placed on calendar 12 1 0
- Jan 17, 2025HouseCommitteeCommittee Hearing 09:00
- Jan 7, 2025HouseIntroducedIntroduced, first reading, referred Political Subdivisions Committee
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Restriction on Private Election Funding
The legislation formalizes a strict ban on private grants for election administration across state and local levels.
Connected Entities
Sources
ndlegis.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance75How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy40Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz30Current news / social attention level
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