North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe conducts a meeting of the State Canvassing Board after the 2024 general election on Nov. 20, 2024. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
By: Michael Achterling
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota’s State Canvassing Board unanimously certified the results of the Nov. 5 election on Wednesday, but will reconvene in December to consider the results of automatic recounts of two soil conservation districts.
The board’s action makes the election results official for state, judicial and legislative races.
Two legislative races remain within the margin for candidates to demand a recount, but at least one of the candidates said he did not plan to challenge the results.
In District 9, which was on the ballot as a result of redistricting, Republican state House candidate David Brien was defeated by Democratic-NPL candidate Collette Brown by 36 votes out of more than 9,400 cast. The newly drawn district includes the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Spirit Lake reservations.
In Grand Forks-area District 18, Democratic-NPL state House candidate Mary Adams was defeated by Republican Nels Christianson by 58 votes out of more than 11,600 cast.
Either candidate could demand a recount by Saturday, but they would have to pay for it unless the outcome is overturned.
Brien told the North Dakota Monitor he does not plan to demand a recount. Adams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nearly 372,000 North Dakotans out of about 594,000 eligible voters participated in the general election, for a voter turnout rate of 63%, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. More than half of the voters cast their ballots before Election Day, said Secretary of State Michael Howe.
“North Dakota voters liked absentee and early voting more than voting on Election Day,” he said. “Right away, especially the first two days of early voting in person, we saw massive turnout. I think North Dakota elections are great because we have several options if you are the voter.”
Howe praised election officials for their hard work in conducting free and fair elections.
“I can’t say enough about our partners in all 53 counties,” Howe said. “They have many different duties in the function of county government and election is a key piece of that, and a very time-consuming process. And they all take it very seriously.”
There will be automatic recounts for two soil conservation district races in Towner and McLean counties that involved write-in candidates.
The State Canvassing Board will reconvene at 10 a.m. Dec. 2 to verify the results of those soil conservation districts, as well as potential demand recounts if one is requested.
Howe said he hopes the Legislature will consider making the counties responsible for recounts involving soil conservation district elections in the future.
Erika White, elections director for the Secretary of State’s Office, said every election provides opportunities to improve. One issue that arose involved ballot-counting machine test results from Mercer and Cass counties that were mistakenly included in election night results. Those test results were removed once the office was made aware of the error, White said.
“An important piece to remember is that those results are unofficial until the county canvassing and the state canvassing,” White said. “We worked fairly quickly to pull those test results out of the system and reflect the accurate counts.”
Members of the State Canvassing Board are Howe, North Dakota Treasurer Thomas Beadle, NDGOP Chair Sandi Sanford, Dem-NPL Party representative Tracy Potter and Petra Mandigo Hulm, clerk for the North Dakota Supreme Court. County canvassing boards met on Monday.
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