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Committee hears competing arguments on HB 1446 to replace party endorsements with petition thresholds
Summary
Representative Mike Naithi introduced a proposal to require petition signatures, not party endorsements, for primary-ballot access, keeping 1 percent for legislative seats and setting 2,000 signatures for statewide offices.
Representative Mike Naithi (District 30, Bismarck) told the House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee that House Bill 1446 would move primary-ballot access from party or district endorsements to petition signatures, keeping party conventions but removing automatic ballot placement from an endorsement. “In order to be placed on the primary ballot…you must get the required signatures,” Naithi said, urging that the change would let the broader electorate — not a small number of delegates — decide ballot access.
The bill would preserve the existing 1 percent signature requirement for legislative candidates (Naithi and others described that as roughly 167 signatures in an average district) and set a 2,000-signature minimum for statewide candidates, a number Naithi said he derived from National Conference of State Legislatures comparisons.
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