ND Supreme Court Bars Democratic Candidate From the Ballot for Not Complying With Residency Requirements
MINOT, N.D. — After oral arguments, and a lower court finding of fact that the candidate did not meet North Dakota’s five-year residency requirement for statewide office, the state Supreme Court has barred Democratic-NPL Insurance Commissioner candidate Travisia Martin from the ballot.
Article V, Section 4 of the North Dakota Constitution states that to be eligible for executive branch elected office, “a person must be a qualified elector of this state, must be at least twenty-five years of age on the day of the election, and must have been a resident of this state for the five years preceding election office.”
In May, I wrote in a column that Martin had, per that state’s records, voted in Nevada during the 2016 election. Voting legally in Nevada requires one to be a resident of that state, meaning Martin couldn’t also have been a resident of North Dakota then.
Instead of acknowledging the mistake, and resigning the race gracefully, Martin and the North Dakota Democratic-NPL tried to fight the law.
