[EL] Can North Dakota really do that?

Mon Mar 1 10:10:41 PST 2021

The compact is silent on the issue, and does not provide any sort of commission/body/process for resolving any uncertainty or disputes. It potentially gives leeway for a compact state to try to estimate the vote totals from a state for which there are no official vote totals – the exact language is that “the chief election official of each member state shall determine the number of votes for each presidential slate in each state of the United States…” I suppose a member state could look at the vote totals in statewide race and apply the reported percentage to arrive at an estimated total for use. Of course not every state has statewide elections that coincide with presidential elections (in 2024, it looks to me like there will not be any statewide races in Iowa, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina), but I suppose you could add up the totals from House races and apply the same process there. And there’s no reason to believe member states would select the same state-wide numbers (cobbled together or not) – some might opt for the race with the most votes, others for Senate or Governor, or some other method entirely, producing differing “national popular vote” counts and even, in the case of a close national vote, different winners.

Or there’s always www.realprezidentalvotcount.ru <http://www.realprezidentalvotcount.ru> .

Sean Parnell  

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> On Behalf Of Mark Scarberry
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2021 2:46 PM
To: Adav Noti <anoti at campaignlegalcenter.org>
Cc: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: Re: [EL] Can North Dakota really do that?

The purpose I suppose, is to undermine the NPV by denying, to all the election officials in states that have adopted the NPV, the vote total from North Dakota in time for them to certify the national popular vote plurality winning Pres./VP slate. I would have to reread the NPV to see what happens if a non-member state does not timely provide popular vote data. 

Mark

  <https://www.pepperdine.edu/_resources/images/email/pepperdine.png> 

Caruso School of Law

Mark S. Scarberry

Professor of Law
mark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu <mailto:mark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu> 

Personal: mark.scarberry at gmail.com <mailto:mark.scarberry at gmail.com> 

On Fri, Feb 26, 2021 at 11:37 AM Adav Noti <anoti at campaignlegalcenter.org <mailto:anoti at campaignlegalcenter.org> > wrote:

Section 4 of the bill provides that the ban on disclosing presidential vote totals takes effect only upon adoption of the popular vote interstate compact, so it seems unlikely to be tested anytime soon.

Adav Noti
Senior Director, Trial Litigation & Chief of Staff

Campaign Legal Center
1101 14th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005

202.736.2203 | @AdavNoti <https://twitter.com/AdavNoti> 

 <mailto:anoti at campaignlegalcenter.org> anoti at campaignlegalcenter.org

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu <mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> > On Behalf Of Stephanie Singer
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2021 2:16 PM
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu <mailto:law-election at uci.edu> >
Subject: [EL] Can North Dakota really do that?

A bill <http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/67-2021/documents/21-0828-02000.pdf>  just passed the ND Senate requiring

1.	a public officer, employee, or contractor of this state or of a political subdivision of 
2.	this state may not release to the public the number of votes cast in the general election for the 
3.	office of the president of the United States until after the times set by law for the meetings and 
4.	votes of the presidential electors in all states. 

Can ND really do that? My opinion is that election results should be easily and timely available to the public, but what does the law have to say?

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