In North Dakota, we have a long-standing tradition of holding our elected officials accountable by empowering the public to take direct action to reform government when politicians are either unwilling or unable to do so themselves. Conversely, throughout the history of the state, the legislature has tried time and again to curtail the ability for citizens to provide a check and balance on the legislature.
The Initiative and Referendum process is a long-standing tradition in North Dakota. The legislature’s continuous knee-jerk reactions of trying to curtail this tradition are also long-standing as there have been dozens of attempts over the decades to rein in the power of citizens to affect change in their own government – most recently in 2019 with the passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 4001.
This resolution will appear on the November 2020 ballot and ask voters to hand the legislature the ability to over-ride the will of the people on Constitutional Initiated Measures. While the legislature has the power to put this before the public, it is a power-grab by the legislature and the people will have the last word on it. It is our hope that voters will reject this attempt to infringe on the Powers Reserved to the People by Article III of the North Dakota Constitution.
With this in mind, our group of politically diverse North Dakotans has come together to give the voters a chance to proactively protect their rights as enumerated in Article III of the North Dakota state constitution. This Article is in fact titled: “Powers Reserved to the People”. Another word for this phrase is “Rights”.
To protect these rights, this proposed initiated measure will add a new section to Article III that ends the legislature’s ability to place measures on the ballot to alter Article III. Under this proposed measure, if legislators want to make changes they will have to use the same process citizens must use - start a measure sponsor committee to collect the required signatures. The following is the language we intend to insert into Article III of the state constitution:
Any amendments to Article III of this constitution shall originate only from the petitioning power granted by this article to the citizens and residents of North Dakota. Any statutory changes affecting the Powers Reserved to the People by Article III of this constitution shall be effective only upon a vote and simple majority approval of the people. This section shall supersede Article IV Section 16 only as it relates to Article III; the legislative assembly’s ability to propose amendments to other areas of this constitution shall not be limited by this section.
This language is simple and does three basic things:
If legislators personally feel the need to make changes, they are free to act as citizens and do the work that we will now do over the next year.
We look forward to making this case to the voters of North Dakota.
The Initiative and Referendum process is a long-standing tradition in North Dakota. The legislature’s continuous knee-jerk reactions of trying to curtail this tradition are also long-standing as there have been dozens of attempts over the decades to rein in the power of citizens to affect change in their own government – most recently in 2019 with the passage of Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 4001.
This resolution will appear on the November 2020 ballot and ask voters to hand the legislature the ability to over-ride the will of the people on Constitutional Initiated Measures. While the legislature has the power to put this before the public, it is a power-grab by the legislature and the people will have the last word on it. It is our hope that voters will reject this attempt to infringe on the Powers Reserved to the People by Article III of the North Dakota Constitution.
With this in mind, our group of politically diverse North Dakotans has come together to give the voters a chance to proactively protect their rights as enumerated in Article III of the North Dakota state constitution. This Article is in fact titled: “Powers Reserved to the People”. Another word for this phrase is “Rights”.
To protect these rights, this proposed initiated measure will add a new section to Article III that ends the legislature’s ability to place measures on the ballot to alter Article III. Under this proposed measure, if legislators want to make changes they will have to use the same process citizens must use - start a measure sponsor committee to collect the required signatures. The following is the language we intend to insert into Article III of the state constitution:
Any amendments to Article III of this constitution shall originate only from the petitioning power granted by this article to the citizens and residents of North Dakota. Any statutory changes affecting the Powers Reserved to the People by Article III of this constitution shall be effective only upon a vote and simple majority approval of the people. This section shall supersede Article IV Section 16 only as it relates to Article III; the legislative assembly’s ability to propose amendments to other areas of this constitution shall not be limited by this section.
This language is simple and does three basic things:
- Requires all constitutional changes to Article III to start with the signature-gathering petition process.
- Requires that all statutory changes affecting Article III made by the legislature be placed on the ballot and approved by the voters before becoming effective.
- Explicitly declares that these changes do not change the powers granted by Article IV of the state constitution on the legislature’s ability to offer amendments on any other part of the constitution.
If legislators personally feel the need to make changes, they are free to act as citizens and do the work that we will now do over the next year.
We look forward to making this case to the voters of North Dakota.