Charges possible for anti-maskers who circulated Fargo school board recall petitions
MINOT, N.D. — A movement of belligerent anti-maskers, who have spent months disrupting meetings with obnoxious behavior, fell flat on their faces earlier this week when they fell far short of the requisite number of signatures to recall four Fargo School Board members.
The shortfall was due to thousands of signatures getting disqualified.
“Many of the signatures were considered invalid because of inadequate signatures, out-of-state addresses, addresses missing both city name and zip codes, no dates, notary errors, circulator errors and address omissions, according to the district,” reporter Chris Hagen tells us. “Some of the signatures included were invalid because signees were from West Fargo, Horace, Harwood, Bismarck or Moorhead, according to the district.”
Jackie Gapp, the business manager for Fargo Public Schools and the person in charge of verifying the recall petitions, told me her office will be referring a list of possible violations to the Cass County State’s Attorney for possible charges.
“Per NDCC 16.1-01, all violations of law discovered by the filing officer must be reported to the state’s attorney for possible prosecution,” Gapp told me, referring to the North Dakota Century Code. “I am working to compile a listing of possible violations to forward to the state’s attorney’s office in accordance with this law.”
