North Dakota Senate passes bill on start of term limits; differs from bill passed by House

BISMARCK — The North Dakota Senate passed a bill on Friday, March 28, clarifying when term limits passed by voters in 2022 officially went into effect.

The date differs from the effective date passed by the House of Representatives after Sen. Janne Myrdal, R-Edinburg, a co-sponsor on House Bill 1300, amended it in committee.

The original bill, sponsored by Rep. Ben Koppelman, R-West Fargo, stated that “the time for calculating the number of years of service for members of the legislative assembly” with regard to term limits, did not start until after Nov. 7, 2022, the day the voters passed term limits.

This date would mean that any legislators elected in even districts in the 2020 general election would not have the clock start for term limits until they start their term after the 2024 general election, but those elected in the 2022 general election – the same election voters adopted term limits – would have the clock start when they took office for the 2023 legislative session.

“If you went to the ballot, or to the poll and cast a ballot that day for legislator X,” Koppelman said, “Then at the same time, you cast your ballot for or against the term limit, then a reasonable person — which is the standard we use in law, often — would say, ‘Yeah, I understood that if that passed, however I felt about term limits, that the guy I just voted for in alleged District 10 would now get eight years, starting now.’”

Koppelman’s version of the bill passed the House in a 64-28 vote.

Myrdal’s amendment would set the effective date for the start of term limits as Jan. 1, 2023, meaning legislators elected in 2022 would not have their time in office count toward term limits until they take office following the 2026 general election.

She said that the Nov. 7, 2022, date is arbitrary and the Jan. 1, 2023, date is dictated by law under Article 15 of the North Dakota Constitution as the effective date for the ballot measure.

“The Election Day is an arbitrary date because it’s not a date set in stone,” Myrdal said. “Legislative interpretation from the language of Article 15 is that it’s prospective and the law says it went into effect on January 1, 2023, so I don’t think there’s a controversy there at all.”

Myrdal also said she felt the date was a better choice in the event of a constitutional challenge to term limits.

Her amended version of the bill passed the Senate in a 40-6 vote. It now goes back to the House for a vote of concurrence.

Koppelman disagreed with the Senate’s interpretation.

“It’s saying that, ‘Well, even though I voted for term limits and I voted for my (representative) in District 9, this time doesn’t count. So four years from now, when I vote for the person in District 9, then it starts, it starts the clock,’” Koppelman said. “So in essence, the odd number districts would get 12 years, and the even number districts would get 10 years … I think to add a whole other term on is not as reasonable of an interpretation for the Legislature, and I have much more concern of judicial scrutiny if we get challenged in court.”

He said that he believes if the House version had passed, it would not have been challenged in court.

Koppelman said he would encourage the House to send the bill to a conference committee to work out the differences between the two versions.