On June 9, Roland Riemers, Libertarian candidate for Secretary of State of North Dakota in the June 12 primary, asked the State Supreme Court to order the Secretary of State to recount the primary vote for Secretary of State. Riemers v Jaeger. The North Dakota law says that no one can be considered nominated in a partisan primary (even if he or she got the most votes) if the candidate doesn’t poll at least 300 votes. The state says Riemers only got 247 votes.
The recount law, 16.1-16-01, says, “A recount must be conducted when: (a) any individual failed to be nominated in a primary election by one percent or less of the highest vote cast for a candidate for the office sought.” North Dakota primaries are open. The single piece of paper lists candidates of all the qualified parties, although there are columns for each party, and the instructions warn voters to only cast votes in one party’s primary. The Republican whose name was printed on the ballot for Secretary of State got 54,563 votes. Riemers argues that 1% of 54,563 is 546, and since he only missed qualifying by 53 votes, 53 is less than 546, and therefore he is entitled to a recount. The state thinks that the 1% tabulation should only apply to the vote cast inside the Libertarian primary, but Riemers says the statute does not mention the party vote. He also points to the fact that the tabulating machines disqualified about 2,000 votes for Secretary of State, with no explanation as to why.
The State Supreme Court is free to either hear this case, or reject it.
The clear wording of the law says I am entitled to an automatic recount. But, no one has ever used the law this way before so it is a case of first impression for the State Supreme Court. My experience with our Court is it is more concerned with politics then the rule of law, so they will do their best to twist the law and ignore the facts to rule against me. With the publicity already given the case, I would guess they will at least be forced to consider it. If they do order a recount, it will be the first time that ND has taken an objective look at our election process. Right now, our ballots are counted by tabulating machines and election workers don’t look at actual ballots. Ballots are not open records here, even though no names appear on the ballots. The state prefers to just destroy them and avoid possible questions about election fraud. So, even if a recount does not find the 53 statewide votes I need to be nominated, the recount may provide extremely important information about the fairness of our ND elections. Those 2,000 disqualified vote about represent almost 2% of the votes cast in our primary, so should we take a look at why so many voters have been cheated out of their vote?
How much over-voting in 1 party’s primary ???
How much [over] voting in 2 or more party primaries ???
One more reason to have NO primaries.
—
PR and AppV
What is odd is the threshold is different for primaries and general elections. How long has that distinction been in the code?