Do ND officials wish the state had voter registration?

NORTH DAKOTA (KVRR) – North Dakota is the only state in the country that doesn’t have voter registration.

“We have an incredibly secure system with all the laws in place currently, the checks and balances, we really don’t have any cases of fraud,” North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger said.

“Our present system of identification is plenty and maybe a little more than we need,” Democratic-NPL State Senator Tim Mathern of Fargo said.

Secretary Jaeger says North Dakota was one of the first states to adopt voter registration before the turn of the 20th century. It was abolished in 1951.

As the Secretary of State’s office has said in commercials, “voting in North Dakota is as easy as pie.” All you need to do is live at your address for 30 days and provide a driver’s license, state issued or tribal ID with an address. North Dakota driver’s licenses issued to non-citizens indicate they aren’t citizens.

“Voter registration adds another step to voters and that additional step, I think, discourages people from voting,” Mathern said.

Each polling place has a central voting file with records on everyone who has voted in the past. Each precinct has an electronic poll book accessible to every county.

“I voted early. If I tried to go on Election Day to vote, the system would already show I had voted, and, so, that would prevent me from double voting,” Jaeger explained.

People who already voted by absentee ballot would also be flagged if they tried to vote in-person.

“If we did implement voter registration in North Dakota it would be very expensive. The federal rules are very cumbersome. And, quite frankly, my colleagues in other states are somewhat envious or North Dakota’s situation,” Jaeger said.

What are those federal regulations?

“It could be things like notifying different departments of government, adding staff people to check lists against other lists, making reports to the federal government,” Mathern said.

Senator Mathern checked with the Legislative Council which told him no bills have been drafted to add voter registration.