Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I appreciate my colleagues on both sides of the aisle recognizing the unique nature of the State of North Dakota. In 1993, the Voter Registration Act passed and there were six States that did not have voter registration. And so, rightfully so, under thoughtful and considered language, they exempted the States who didn't have voter registration from the Voter Registration Act. Well, now we are in 2021, and the only State in the country that doesn't have voter registration is the State of North Dakota. So as this process has been going on and the different fights that exists, which I agree with my colleagues on this side of the aisle on a lot of those issues, we find ourselves in a fairly unique position in that the intent of what people are trying to do with this bill would have actually made it more difficult in a lot of cases in North Dakota for how we do things. We are proud of our quirky board of elections system. I will just tell you, when I served in the State legislature, I was the chair of the State Senate Judiciary Committee, which was in charge of election law. And North Dakotans are very proud of it. I also served as the State party chair for 3 years, so I was very frustrated by the fact that we didn't have voter registration. So even in my own background, I had conflicting views on this.…”