3/16/2012:
We are currently at high tide for political news in the United States during this presidential campaign season. But successful campaigns – and eventual election wins – can’t guarantee the completion of a winner’s full office term.
For example, elected representatives In North Dakota can be recalled. That right came about on this date in1920. The idea of recalling elected officials by a disappointed electorate was popular in America’s progressive era and appealed to North Dakotans as well. The exciting, historical and turbulent times introduced North Dakotan’s Non Partisan League in 1915. The NPL was a force in North Dakota and paved the way for the state’s recall provision, which stated that qualified electors of the state, a county, or of any congressional, judicial, or legislative district, could petition for the recall an elected officer.
That process begins with a petition by the people. Then as now, passion, petition and pounding the pavement leads the way though the process. The gathered signatures must equal twenty-five percent of the votes in the preceding general election.
Lynn Frazier was North Dakota’s first Nonpartisan League governor, elected in 1916, 1918, and 1920. His NPL administration legislated many of North Dakota’s most radical changes. Those included establishing the state-owned Bank of North Dakota and the State Mill and Elevator. When the recall provision to the constitution was approved by the voters, the stage was set. But, would it ever actually be put into play?
It was a time when politically bitter philosophies and devastating farm prices in the post war nation bedeviled North Dakotans. Unstable investments by the state, passionate oppositions and an increasingly angry electorate created a toxic political environment. The NPL’s socialist-based initiatives and political mis-steps helped fuel the flames of discontent.
Just months after the initiation of the recall provision, Frazier, elected three times and popular, was hoisted on his own petard. Voters put the recall to its inaugural test and yanked Frazier from the governor’s chair. It made waves. He became the first public official in the United States to be removed from office by recall election.
Frazier recovered politically and served in the United States Senate from 1923 to 1940. North Dakota also recovered, and the recall provision remains in place.
Dakota Datebook written by Steve Stark
http://ag.state.nd.us/opinions
Robinson, Elwyn B. 1966, Univ. of Nebraska Press History of North Dakota