North Dakota
Before the real voting, there’s the trial run • North Dakota Monitor
Bob Henderson, the director of information technology in Cass County, called it one of the most important but most tedious parts of election preparation — testing the machines that tabulate the votes.
Before voting begins, the vote tabulators are fed a “test deck” — a group of ballots that is filled out before the election to make sure machines get the correct vote total.
Similar tests are done in every county across the state before the machines are used.
The North Dakota Monitor observed the public demonstrations Cass and Burleigh counties did of voting equipment leading up to the election.
“It went as it should go,” Mark Splonskowski, auditor-treasurer for Burleigh County, said of the test. “It counted it correctly and then we zeroed it out and made sure it was at zero when we were done.”
Henderson and other Cass County election officials demonstrated how the voting machines work and answered questions about the election process on Oct. 25 at a Fargo warehouse where the county stores its election equipment.
Nathan Hansen, who works in the county’s finance office, fed ballots into the machine by hand, just as a voter would, unless a voter asks for help from an election official. Some of the ballots are intentionally mismarked, such as voting for two candidates in the presidential race, to make sure the machine flags those kinds of mistakes for voters so they can get a new ballot to fix the mistake if they want to.
The machine will also flag races that are skipped or where the voter does not vote for the maximum number of candidates, such as voting for only one candidate for state House of Representatives when voters can select two.
Voting already has been taking place for weeks in North Dakota by absentee or mail-in voting and early in-person voting.
Cass County, North Dakota’s most populous county, runs more than 500 ballots through each of the more than 60 voting tabulators before they are given the stamp of approval.
The number of test ballots is determined by the number of contests. A county or precinct with fewer races will have fewer scenarios to test for.
During the Burleigh County test, Splonskowski demonstrated how the machine won’t allow multiple ballots to be inserted at the same time. He added the height and width specifications of the ballots must match the requirements of the machine.
Rep. Karen Karls, R-Bismarck, chair of NDGOP District 35, also viewed the Burleigh County election equipment test.
“It seems pretty straightforward,” Karls said of this year’s test.
She said she comes to the test every election cycle because some of her voters have concerns about election security.
“There are election deniers out there, and so I ask the questions and hopefully get the answers that take care of the problem,” Karls said.
Splonkowski said election officials and state lawmakers have tried to get ahead of election integrity questions.
“What I want is an informed electorate,” Splonskowski said. “I want informed legislators, so they know how the process works, so that they can understand it better. If there are to be improvements made, you can’t make improvements unless you already know how it works.”
All ballots cast in North Dakota are paper ballots, whether filled in manually or with a touchscreen. Henderson calls the touchscreen “a digital pencil” that transfers the voter’s choices to a paper ballot. The voter can review that ballot before submitting.
Henderson emphasized that neither the touch screen nor the vote tabulators are connected to the internet. Flash drives or “data sticks” are used to physically take results from the machine to the auditor’s office, but the paper ballots are put into sealed containers for potential verification.
Cody Schuler, advocacy manager of the American Civil Liberties Union in North Dakota, observed the Cass County demonstration.
The ACLU is among the groups that monitor voting sites and take reports of irregularities. The ACLU partners with the League of Women Voters on voter access issues.
“If folks feel their rights are being violated, or if there are long lines and want to report things that might be hindering people’s accessibility to the polls, those are the kind of things that people need to self-advocate for, but the ACLU and our partner organizations across the nation do that and we’re active here in North Dakota,” Schuler said.
Voters also can report issues to either of those groups, the county or to the secretary of state.
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COOPERSTOWN, N.D. — They are one of the smallest sheriff’s departments in North Dakota, but the Griggs County Sheriff’s Office has made state history.
Sheriff Amberly Michaelis and Chief Deputy Danielle Bjorlie are the first female sheriff and chief deputy duo in North Dakota.
Griggs County might look like any other small-town department, but Michaelis and Bjorlie are breaking new ground in law enforcement.
“I never would have guessed it,” Michaelis said.
“Honorable to think we did that here in Griggs County,” she added.
This marks the second time Michaelis has served as sheriff in Griggs County. Her law enforcement career began 15 years ago in Florida.
“At the end of the day, the way we can help people and try to better our community is really what it’s all about,” Michaelis said.
Bjorlie, who has been in law enforcement since 2007, echoed the sentiment. She comes from a family of first responders.
“When I was little, I talked about this the other day, I climbed in the back of my dad’s car when he was responding to a grass fire because I wanted to see what was going on … one of the other firemen ratted me out because he saw me peeking my head over,” Bjorlie said.
Neither woman focuses much on being a female officer.
“You just go out and do your job every day. I don’t really get much flak from other people as being a female,” Michaelis said.
“No one really treats us differently, there’s maybe been a handful of times when it has happened,” Bjorlie said.
In addition to keeping the community safe, the two women are focused on building strong connections with local children, hoping to inspire future leaders.
“Try to be that role model for them like I had for me, just trying to do the best I can so that other kids might be interested,” said Bjorlie.
“I hope that females can look at us as role models and it can open their eyes that they can do whatever they put their mind to,” Michaelis said.
The Hettinger County Sheriff’s Office recently became the second in state history to have both a female sheriff and chief deputy. Sheriff Sarah Warner is the longest-serving female sheriff in North Dakota with 15 years of service.
Matt Henson is an Emmy award-winning reporter/photographer/editor for WDAY. Prior to joining WDAY in 2019, Matt was the main anchor at WDAZ in Grand Forks for four years.
WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Baylor women’s basketball head coach Nicki Collen announced the addition of North Dakota standout Kiera Pemberton on Friday.
The 6-foot-1 forward led the Fighting Hawks in scoring and rebounding as a sophomore, averaging 16.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. She had a career-high 34 points against Oral Roberts and 17 rebounds against South Dakota.
Pemberton, a Langley, B.C., native, was an All-Summit League honoree and starred at Walnut Grove Secondary School before representing Canada in the 2021 FIBA U-16 Women’s AmeriCup.
Baylor finished the 2024-25 season 28-8, placing second in the Big 12 and advancing to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship final.
Today in History takes a look back at an article from April 4, 1915, about University of North Dakota’s Men’s Glee Club and their annual tour of the state. Read ahead to learn about the UND Men’s Glee Club, some of its members, and what their tour entailed.
University of North Dakota Men’s Glee Club which starts on tenth annual tour of the state tonight making ten cities in circuit
This evening (April 4, 1915), the University of North Dakota Men’s Glee Club will leave Grand Forks on its tenth annual tour of the state, which will include visits to ten cities, ending on the sixteenth with the home concert. In order to accommodate the number of cities that desired to hear the club this year, a short trip was made between semesters in February, which took in Mandan, Bismarck, New Salem, and Dickinson.
The annual tour is always made during the spring vacation as this is the only time that the men can absent themselves from their studies long enough to make the trip. The early trip was a valuable experience to the new men this year and the club that starts out tonight is one that is among the best that ever represented the school, well-balanced and rounded into excellent condition.
The club this year is composed of thirty-five men, twenty of whom have been selected for the tour, after tryouts held in quartets by Director W. W. Norton. The competition is always keen and this year it was unusually so. The men are chosen on the following basis:
- Knowing the songs and their rendition.
- Work as soloists or readers.
- General value to the club.
The men of the different sections are as follows:
First Tenors – Howard Flint, J. J. Webber, McLain Critchfield, Joseph Snowfield, H. H. Schlafer.
Second Tenors – Orval McHaffie, Walter S. Tostevin, John Muir, R. W. Manuel, Meecham.
First Bass – S. Cuyler Anderson, Louis G. Telner, Howard Bertelson, Alvin Stommer.
Second Bass – McKinley Tubbs, John Fraine, Clarence Lee, John Moore, W. W. Norton.
The club is particularly fortunate this year in its soloists. There will be two tenors who will appear on the present trip, Rowland Philip Manuel, associate professor of voice in Wesley College, whose group of three songs will be one of the features of the concerts, and Registrar Schlafer, whose work is of the highest class and who never fails to please an audience.
The baritone soloist, S. Cuyler Anderson, of Jamestown, is making his third tour with the club and is well known to audiences of the state. He has a wonderfully musical voice of great range, and his rendition is most pleasing.
Director Norton appears as a bass soloist and also on the violin. His work needs no comment. He is familiar to every music-loving audience in the state and is always enthusiastically welcomed wherever he appears.
Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.
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