The North Dakota House on Tuesday rejected a resolution that would set up an electronic signature gathering system overseen by the Secretary of State.
The sponsor, Grand Forks Republican Rep. Steve Vetter, said that fraudulent signatures on petitions would no longer be a problem under the proposal “because we can require verification, we can require IDs, we send in our taxes electronically, we notarize documents electronically.. you can close on your house electronically.”
He added, “The technology’s out there. We just need to do it.”
Minot Republican Rep. Scott Louser said there are too many unanswered questions.
“In the (Government and Veterans Affairs) Committee, we discussed this,” Louser said. “We want to make it harder to amend the Constitution by making it easier to collect signatures. I don’t think we put this on the ballot before it’s ready for prime time.”
The resolution also offered to restrict initiated measures to a single subject…
increase signature requirements for those measures …
and require a simple majority in primary and general elections — in a majority of state legislative districts — for passage.
The vote against the resolution was 63-to-29.
FOLLOW US FOR INSTANT UPDATES!
