What Does HAVA Mean For North Dakota?

The passage of HAVA has caused sweeping election changes for states and local jurisdictions across the country, including North Dakota. North Dakota is already on track with making the necessary changes to ensure compliance with HAVA. The Fifty-eighth Legislative Assembly was very supportive of the changes required of HAVA and as a result passed legislationlaying the foundation for the Secretary of State to develop and implement a State HAVA Plan in compliance with the federal provisions.

The Secretary of State is using a unique approach for the development and implementation of the State Plan by actively involving local election officials directly through the North Dakota Association of Counties (NDACo). The state plan was constructed by a steering group comprised of representation from the Secretary of State's office, county auditors, and NDACo. The State Plan serves as a roadmap for the state's election officials to work from.

Major topics, concepts and themes addressed by the State HAVA Plan include:

Voting Systems:
While every county will see changes in their voting systems, Williams County will see the most drastic changes since the county uses a punch card voting system, which will be replaced according to HAVA.

A "voting system" in North Dakota will be comprised of a device capable of notifying the voter if corrections are necessary on his or her ballot (known as second-chance voting), and allows persons with disabilities, and others, the opportunity to vote unassisted. Each precinct in North Dakota will be required to have the new voting system implemented by January 1, 2006.

Accessibility:
In accordance with HAVA, each “eligible State and eligible unit of local government shall…

Each polling location will be inspected for accessibility needs by January 1, 2006.

Military and Overseas Voting:
The Fifty-eighth Legislative Assembly passed legislation in the form of Senate Bill No. 2248 designating the Secretary of State's office as the single office in the state for providing information regarding absentee voting. The legislation also directs the Secretary of State to establish uniform procedures for county auditors to follow when transmitting and receiving military and overseas voting materials. [NDCC 16.1-07]

Election Official Education and Voter Outreach:
Currently in North Dakota, the office of the Secretary of State holds training sessions for county auditors each election year. The county auditors, in turn, hold training sessions for their county election officials and poll workers prior to each election. Improvements for election official training may be accomplished through grants; continuing education programs; standardized poll worker training programs; archived, web-based training sessions; Interactive Video Network (IVN) classes for remote sites; and training videos/compact discs available to all election officials.

Voter outreach may be improved through coordination with youth organizations, advocates for the disabilities, the aging community, tribal entities, and other groups; development of a statewide precinct locator; public demonstrations of new voting equipment and related technology; informational mailing to every household; web-based educational tools; and published sample ballots and analyses.

Voter Grievance Process:
The Fifty-eighth Legislative Assembly passed legislation in the form of Senate Bill No. 2409 authorizing and requiring the Secretary of State to establish a state-based grievance procedure to handle complaints of violations of Title III of HAVA, which requires the state to provide accessible voting equipment by 2006. The legislation requires complaints be in writing, notarized, signed and sworn by the person filing the complaint. The Secretary of State shall make a final determination within 90 days of the filing date. If the complaint is dismissed, the results of the review must be published.[NDCC 16.1-01-16]

Statewide Voter Database and Provisional Voting:
North Dakota is the only state in the nation without some form of voter registration. It was one of the first states to adopt voter registration and it was the first state to abolish it in 1951.

North Dakota's system of voting and lack of voter registration is rooted in its rural character, illustrated by numerous small precincts, where local election boards know most of the voters who enter the polls to vote on Election Day and may detect those who should not be voting in the precinct.

Because of North Dakota's unique election system, which does not require voters to register, the state is exempt from the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, along with several provisions of the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), including but not limited to: