Legislature votes to ban approval and ranked-choice voting in North Dakota

BISMARCK, N.D. — A bill that will end approval voting in Fargo passed the Senate floor on Tuesday.

A last-minute amendment grandfathering Fargo’s approval voting system failed to get a floor vote.

HB 1297 ends both approval and ranked-choice voting in all elections in the state.

Fargo first began approval voting for city commissioners after a ballot measure was approved by voters in the 2018 election.

Those in favor of the bill alleged that the state’s election rules should be consistent throughout the state and that voters found approval voting to be too confusing.

Local legislators spoke on the floor in favor of keeping approval voting in Fargo, but were not able to sway the floor.

“The advantage of approval voting is it encourages individuals to run for office. And we’ve had really good engagement in civic activity because of approval voting,” said Sen. Kathy Hogan (D-Fargo). “This has demonstrated that we want people to be involved in political life and this methodology has worked very effectively for our community.”

The bill will now head to Gov. Armstrong’s desk to be either vetoed or signed into law.