(KFYR) – The North Dakota Supreme Court will not rule on the legitimacy of four Republican legislative candidates on the ballot, saying the effort was brought to them too late.
In a ruling filed Wednesday, the justices denied a petition from three Republican figures challenging the nominating petitions of four primary winners.
Matthew Evans, Jeff Hoverson and Douglas Pearson filed the petition late last month. The trio argued District 3 House candidates Tim Mihalick and Blaine DesLauriers, and District 7 candidate Steven Sauter, had missing addresses filled in by third parties. They also claimed District 25 candidate Terry Goerger failed to claim an official party on his paperwork.
The petitioners asked the court to rule that, if the candidates won their respective races, their victory would be voided and the local party district committee would nominate a replacement.
In the primary, Hoverson lost to Mihalick and DesLauriers and Evans lost to Goerger. Pearson is a member of the executive committee of Sauter’s district.
The Secretary of State’s office declined to act on the matter this summer, The justices wrote the petitioners did not bring the case before the high court until Sept. 28, roughly a month after the deadline for candidates to file corrections to their nominating petitions, and after the general election ballot had been certified.
“The timing of the present petition disrupts an ongoing election, potentially confusing voters. Delayed filing also creates substantial prejudice for the four candidates,” the justices wrote.
Justices Jerod Tufte and Douglas Bahr, who are themselves on the ballot, were disqualified from ruling on the matter, and were replaced by surrogate justices William Neumann and David Reich.
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