North Dakota is the only state that doesn’t require voter registration.
Now, the Legislature is considering studying whether the state should implement it.
"I firmly believe that we should start addressing the real issues we have with voting in North Dakota," said Burleigh County Auditor Kevin Glatt, who supports the study. "That's the 'little-r residency' and the 'big r-registration.'"
Glatt told the Senate Government and Veterans Affairs Committee the recent election problems the state has seen are due to the Legislature’s decisions on voter ID – and putting a lot of the authority over that in the hands of the Department of Transportation.
"We have made the central voter file a quasi-voter-registration system," said Glatt. And he says the whole system of voting in North Dakota needs a thorough review.
"And until that is done, we will accomplish nothing in election reform -- but just do a lot of talking," said Glatt.
The Secretary of State’s office opposes such a study.
"All of the extra work and expense for voter registration actually produces a voting process that is less efficient than what North Dakotans have experienced since 1951, when the Legislative Assembly voted to repeal voter registration," Deputy Secretary of State Jim Silrum told the Committee. He says other states have had their own problems with voter registration – and how it complicates the process.
"I'd bet there would be 49 other states that would like to come and say, 'Don't do it,'" said Silrum.
The committee hasn’t taken action on the bill.
