North Dakota primary turnout was just under 21%; about a third of Fargo’s eligible voters cast ballots in the mayor’s race

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) — Statewide, primary turnout came in just under 21%, with a little over 125,000 ballots cast across North Dakota.

Cass County, which led the state in early in-person voting, finished at about 19% overall turnout.

This was also the first year that absentee ballots had to be received by Election Day, and nearly 87% of those ballots were returned.

Fargo mayoral race turnout

Inside Fargo, the numbers get more specific. The city’s 2026 population is estimated at about 138,574 people. In the mayoral race, 21,610 ballots were cast.

If you stack that against the entire population — kids, non-citizens, everyone — that works out to about 15.6% of Fargo residents casting a vote for mayor and about 7.3% of everyone living here voting for the winner.

Election officials say there are 63,316 active voters in Fargo. Based on that, about 34.13% of eligible voters took part in the mayor’s race, and about 15.93% — nearly 16% — of eligible voters cast a ballot for Josh Boschee.

For context, state election officials say that in the last Fargo mayoral election in 2022, 23,950 votes were cast. But that primary also included a U.S. Senate contest at the top of the ballot — the kind of high-profile race that tends to draw more voters.

This time around, neither U.S. Senate seat is up, and there’s no governor’s race either, so the mayoral and local contests had to do more of the work driving turnout on their own.

Ballot shortage at Atonement Lutheran Church

Officials confirm they ran extra ballots to Atonement Lutheran Church, but say that’s normal as turnout shifts between vote centers.

According to the auditor, it didn’t create any lines they’re aware of, didn’t change the outcome, and mainly meant that some polling places took a little longer than usual to get their materials back in.

Infrastructure sales tax approved

Voters overwhelmingly approved keeping Fargo’s 1% Infrastructure Sales Tax. The measure passed with 15,255 votes, or 72.89%, in favor. 5,673 votes, or 27.11%, were against.

That means the existing 1% tax will remain in place until December 2048, rather than expiring in 2028.