Highway Patrol Wants Lawmakers to Report Harassment Because Threats Precede Violence

(Photo by Jacob Orledge/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – Every morning before 9 a.m., Sen. Judy Lee receives a call on her landline, the only phone number she discloses publicly.

Lee never picks up. She doesn’t know who it is that keeps calling. It could be harassment. Or it might be a telemarketer.

“I doubt that it’s somebody who wants to shoot me,” said Lee, R-West Fargo. “They could just come to my door. They’ve got my address.”

The availability of elected officials’ home addresses has become a concern as North Dakota looks for ways to balance transparency and accessibility against personal security. North Dakota lawmakers’ home addresses were removed from the Legislature’s official website last summer in the wake of the shootings of two Minnesota legislators at their homes.