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Sent: Friday, September 8, 2023 1:16 PM
To: Oliver, Lee A. <loliver@nd.gov>
Subject: Election Integrity Act
***** CAUTION: This email originated from an outside source. Do not click links or open
attachments unless you know they are safe. *****
Lee Ann,
We will not accept the title as is and will be resubmitting. Thank you.
Blessings,
Lydia R. Gessele
lydiar.gessele@protonmail.com
Proverbs 31 Farm
Wells County
701-341-0976
Lydia,
The title was drafted by the Secretary of State with approval from the Attorney General as outlined in NDCC §
16.1‐01‐09 subsection b which reads as follows: “Upon receipt of a petition to initiate or refer a measure, the secretary
of state shall draft a short and concise statement that fairly represents the measure. The statement must be submitted
to the attorney general for approval or disapproval. An approved statement must be affixed to the petition before it is
circulated for signatures, must be called the "petition title", and must be placed immediately before the full text of the
measure.”
Reading through the text of the petition as presented, there is no reference to the “removal of election
machines”. There is reference to hand counting in section 4 which is included in the title drafted and approved by the
Secretary of State and Attorney General. Additionally, the text of the measure refers to scanning of paper ballots
“electronically” in subsection dd of section 7. Therefore, the title drafted by the Secretary of State and approved by the
Attorney General is a fair representation of the measure as provided.
From: Lydia Gessele <lydiar.gessele@protonmail.com>
Sent: Friday, September 8, 2023 11:50 AM
To: Oliver, Lee A. <loliver@nd.gov>
Subject: RE: changes needed to submitted petition
***** CAUTION: This email originated from an outside source. Do not click links or open attachments unless you know
they are safe. *****
Lee Ann,
May I ask why the title the SOS and AG came up with an incomplete description that does not mention the removal
of the election machines? Second question why is this title an essay and not a title?
Blessings,
Lydia R. Gessele
Proverbs 31 Farm
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‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Friday, September 8th, 2023 at 10:51 AM, Lydia Gessele <lydiar.gessele@protonmail.com> wrote:
Blessings,
Lydia R. Gessele
Proverbs 31 Farm
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Friday, September 8th, 2023 at 9:15 AM, Oliver, Lee A. <loliver@nd.gov> wrote:
Good Morning Lydia,
I have attached pdf’s of the documents that will be put in the mail today. I have
also pasted below the approved petition title so that you can simply copy and paste into
your petition document. Once this is done please email me the full petition with the title
added and we will go over it again and then get back to you to let you know if there are
any further updated or if you are good to go out and circulate. Thanks and of course if
you have any questions let me know.
This initiated measure amends Articles II and III of the North Dakota Constitution and
repeals Section 16 of Article IV of the North Dakota Constitution. This constitutional
amendment prohibits: early voting, voting by mail (except for absentee ballots), criminal
and civil penalties for petition circulators and sponsoring committees, ranked‐choice
voting, petitions of nomination for candidacy, online petitions, and public drop boxes. It
requires elections to be administered by elected (as opposed to appointed) county
auditors and requires ballots to be counted by hand. It prohibits the state legislature
from placing proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot, and lowers the
threshold to recall a state, county, or legislative official from twenty‐five percent of
those who voted at the preceding applicable general election to ten percent. It raises
the time limit to gather signatures for constitutional amendments from one year to
three years. It allows non‐residents of North Dakota to circulate petitions and allows
circulators to circulate petitions on all public property without restrictions of any type.
This amendment requires that individual ballots be made public on the Office of
Secretary of State’s website for no less than 6 years. This amendment also provides that
violation of the new section of Article II results in a fine of a minimum of $1,000 and a
maximum of $10,000, as well as personal liability to those whose rights under the new
section have been violated.
Election Specialist
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