North Dakota held a gubernatorial election in November 2012. Independent candidate Paul Sorum has been fighting in court to overturn the election results, on the grounds that both the Democratic nominee and the Republican nominee should not have been on the ballot. The basis for this claim is that both candidates make paperwork errors when they filed for office. The Secretary of State had removed the Libertarian nominee, Roland Riemers, from the Libertarian primary ballot, for making the same error. Riemers later argued in the State Supreme Court that he should not have been removed from the ballot, but the State Supreme Court upheld the Secretary of State. Riemers got on the November ballot anyway, because after he was not permitted to run in the Libertarian primary, he petitioned to get on the ballot as an independent candidate.
As this newspaper story says, on March 3, the attorney for state government did not appear in court, and missed the argument, due to a misunderstanding about what time the case would be argued.
The November 2012 election returns for Governor were: Republican Jack Dalrymple 200,526; Democrat Ryan M. Taylor 109,047; independent Sorum 5,356; Riemers 2,616. Sorum argues that because the Republican and Democratic nominees were improperly on the ballot, their votes are invalid, and he is the legitimate governor. His case is filed in Mandan, Morton County, in district court.
I’m surprised the judge didn’t throw out the case because of the standing issue. This sounds like selective enforcement of the law. Are we losing the rule of law?
Go get ’em, Paul!
Claim is MOOT — comes too late — after the election.
Elections cure all — standard court stuff.
The D and R candidates GOT the votes whether or not their names should have been on the ballots.