How did these three names get there alongside my presidential candidate? • North Dakota Monitor

When North Dakotans cast their ballots during the presidential campaign, they are not directly voting for their chosen candidate. Instead, they vote for the three names next to their chosen candidate – the presidential election.

In North Dakota, state political parties typically nominate electors during their state conventions.

The North Dakota Republican Party has selected state Sen. Jeff Magrum and former state Reps. Kim Koppelman and Rick Becker as electors in the 2024 election.

Democratic-NPL Party voters include Carol Davis, a former vice president of Turtle Mountain Community College; Byron Knutson, a former commissioner of state insurance and state labor; and E. Jane Sinner, wife of the late Governor George Sinner.

The Libertarian Party is also participating in the presidential election and has three electors appearing on the ballot.

Erika White, director of elections at the Secretary of State's Office, said presidential voters are there bound to state law to vote for their party's announced presidential candidate.

On December 11, Gov. Doug Burgum will sign a certificate of certification to formally appoint the state's presidential electors based on the official election results certified by the state's Board of Elections.

North Dakota voters will meet at the state Capitol on Dec. 17 to cast the state's three electoral votes.

Each state's total number of electoral votes is determined by the number of its members in the U.S. House of Representatives and its two senators.

Those votes will then be counted in Washington during a joint session of Congress on January 6th.

Eric Burin, a history professor at the University of North Dakota, said the Electoral College system was created as a compromise between those who wanted to use the results of the national popular vote to elect the president and those who wanted the president to be elected by federal or state legislatures.

“The politically optimal solution was to require neither and to allow both,” Burin said.

During North Dakota's 2021 legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill against it the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The agreement, signed by 17 states and the District of Columbia, would award a state's electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The North Dakota Legislature also called on Congress to oppose any measure that would change the distribution of electoral votes without amending the U.S. Constitution.