Why It Matters
North Dakota’s District 11 legislative race has been thrown into procedural uncertainty following the death of a Democratic state representative, exposing a gap in state election law that could leave the party with only one House candidate on the November ballot instead of two.
What Happened
Democratic-NPL Representative Liz Conmy of Fargo died on April 25 in a plane crash, creating an immediate vacancy on the primary ballot for one of District 11’s two House seats. The district, centered in south Fargo, has been held entirely by Democrats.
Secretary of State Michael Howe determined that because mail-in ballots had already been distributed to voters beginning April 30, it was too late to substitute another candidate’s name on the primary ballot. His office directed the party to use a certified write-in candidate in the June 9 primary as the mechanism for placing a replacement on the November 3 general election ballot.
No Democratic candidate met Tuesday’s deadline to file as a certified write-in. Howe emphasized that only certified write-ins would have their votes tallied, making the outcome clear: without a certified Democratic write-in finalist, only fellow Democrat Anastassiya Andrianova would advance from the party to the general election for District 11 House.
The Dispute
District 11 Senator Tim Mathern disputes the Secretary of State’s interpretation, arguing that state law allows the party itself to directly name a replacement nominee for the general election ballot — bypassing the primary write-in process entirely. Mathern pointed to research from Legislative Council, the Legislature’s nonpartisan legal and research arm, regarding a similar situation in 2020.
In that prior case, a House candidate died before the November general election but still received enough votes to be declared elected. An attorney general’s opinion at the time held that the candidate should be considered elected, with the resulting vacancy to be filled by the nominating party. Legislation in the 2021 session sought to codify that opinion into statute.
However, a Legislative Council attorney noted in an email to Mathern that the statute in question “appears to apply to candidates elected in a general election, not to those nominated in a primary election.” The same attorney added that “any determination by the Secretary of State is likely to be binding.” Legislative Council Director John Bjornson clarified that his office describes what the law says but does not render legal advice, and that any dispute over interpretation would need to be resolved in court or through a formal attorney general’s opinion.
House Minority Leader Zac Ista, himself an attorney, acknowledged that the Secretary of State’s office was acting in good faith under an ambiguous area of law, while noting that other interpretations remain worth examining. Ista also pointed out a tactical reason the party avoided the write-in route: a write-in candidate who lost to Andrianova in the primary would have been barred from running as an independent in the general election under the state’s so-called “sore loser rule.”
By the Numbers
- April 25: Date of Representative Conmy’s death in a plane crash
- April 30: Date mail-in voting began, which Secretary of State Howe cited as the cutoff for ballot changes
- June 9: Date of the North Dakota primary election
- August 31: Deadline for an independent candidate to qualify for the general election ballot, requiring 300 signatures from qualified voters
- November 3: General election date
Zoom Out
The situation highlights a broader gap that several states have encountered: election laws written around general election vacancies often do not translate cleanly to primary ballot vacancies, particularly when they arise close to voting deadlines. North Dakota Republicans currently hold a legislative supermajority, though Democrats have fielded a larger number of candidates in the current cycle. A Republican write-in candidate, Doug Sharbono of Fargo, did file for District 11 House — the only Republican to enter that race. Mathern suggested the Legislature could clarify the law during the 2027 session.
What’s Next
The District 11 Democratic executive committee has set a Friday deadline for applications from individuals interested in filling the remainder of Conmy’s existing term and potentially running in November. Mathern indicated he would prefer the two roles — completing the current term and running for the next — be filled by separate individuals due to term limit considerations. The party could also seek a formal attorney general’s opinion or pursue a court challenge. An independent candidate has until August 31 to gather 300 voter signatures and qualify for the general election ballot, offering a possible alternate path to filling the seat. Federal legislative developments have drawn attention away from state-level races in recent months, but the District 11 vacancy could affect the partisan composition of the chamber if left unresolved.