2012 Election Snapshot: North Dakota

Article February 20, 2014 Read time:

Projects: Election Initiatives

2012 Election Snapshots

Over the past several months, Pew collected data about the 2012 presidential election from nearly every state and the District of Columbia. We used the findings to create a snapshot of each jurisdiction, focusing on how many people voted, how long they waited to cast their ballots, how they cast them, and how many ballots were not counted.

2012 Election Snapshot—North Dakota

North Dakota is the only state that does not require voter registration, meaning that any eligible voter may cast a ballot. Every polling Snapshots_generic place has a list of people who have voted at that location in previous elections, and if a voter is not on the list, the poll worker will verify the name and address to confirm residency. North Dakota has a voter identification requirement but also allows poll workers to vouch for individuals’ identity and residency.

Because North Dakota does not require voter registration, it is exempt from the requirement in the National Voter Registration Act that states issue provisional ballots.

This concludes our dispatch series on state snapshots of the 2012 election. Next week we will begin a new Election Data Dispatches series on election technology.