North Dakota Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong gestures during a meeting at the state Capitol in Bismarck, N.D., Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jack Dura)
FARGO (KFGO) – Fargo’s unique voting system is no more.
Gov. Kelly Armstrong has signed a bill into law doing away with “approval voting.”
Fargo voters adopted “approval voting” in 2018 after candidates in previous elections won city commission seats with relatively small percentages of the overall vote. Last year, the two winning commission candidates received support from 46% and 44.5% of voters.
Armstrong says the state needs a consistent and efficient voting-method.
“One of the things about North Dakota is we have a very uniform election system,” Armstrong says. “We have a good voter ID law. It’s the easiest state in the world to vote in. We just can’t, quite frankly, have every single municipality doing it differently – it loses faith and trust in the voters. Our secretary of state does a great job. North Dakota does a great job. It’s one of the few places, I think, where we can really have faith in our elections. The bill came to me and I think it’s the right vote.”
Armstrong says people understand one person, one vote.
Mayor Tim Mahoney says city leaders saw the end result coming, given the legislature’s strong support for the bill, sponsored by Republican Rep. Ben Koppelman of West Fargo.
The city’s next election is in June of next year for mayor and two commission seats.
Two years ago, former Gov. Burgum vetoed an identical proposal calling it state overreach and a blatant infringement on local control. At that time, the House overrode the veto, but the Senate sustained it.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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