North Dakota Senate Passes Bill to Hide Future Presidential Vote Counts From Public View

[brooklynite]

Law & Crime

The North Dakota Senate this week passed a bill which aims to forbid election officials from disclosing how many actual votes are cast for each candidate in upcoming presidential elections. The total tallies would only be disclosed after future Electoral Colleges convene to select an official victor.

The measure, Senate Bill 2271, was introduced by Sen. Robert Erbele, a Republican from Lehr, N.D., who represents a district situated southeast of Bismarck. It would withhold the state’s vote count from the public and allow officials to only reveal the percentage of the total vote each candidate receives.

“[A] public officer, employee, or contractor of this state or of a political subdivision of this state may not release to the public the number of votes cast in the general election for the office of the president of the United States until after the times set by law for the meetings and votes of the presidential electors in all states,” the bill states. “After the votes for presidential electors are canvassed, the secretary of state may release the percentage of statewide votes cast for each set of presidential electors to the nearest hundredth of a percentage point, a list of presidential candidates in order of increasing or decreasing percentage of the vote received by presidential electors selected by the candidates, and the presidential candidate whose electors received the highest percentage of votes.”

...snip...

The bill is designed to prevent implementation of the national popular vote compact – a multi-state agreement aimed at circumventing the Electoral College.

[Make7]

1. Nothing produces faith in elections quite like keeping the vote totals a secret. ( n/t )

[Walleye]

2. Republican voter suppression laws. Seems like they're awfully worried about states they never lose

Losing Georgia has them scared. Too bad they’re incapable of passing legislation that actually helps their constituents

[Chainfire]

3. Government in the sunshine....

[LuckyLib]

4. North Dakotans are going to have to take back their state

from Republican crazies.

[bluestarone]

6. We live here and

That won't happen anytime soon. I guess most residents are just as CRAZY.

[JDC]

5. As Un-American as it gets.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. Is that the Putin way?

[brooklynite]

8. No, the Putin way is to make up the numbers...