North Dakota’s Republican and Democratic candidates for secretary of state agree the state’s elections are secure, free and fair in response to President Donald Trump’s election integrity speech.
In a primetime national address last week, Trump said election infrastructure across the country, including voting machines, ballot tabulators, voter rolls, election pollbooks and official election results websites were exposed to hacking and other exploitation from foreign countries and other non-state groups.
The Trump administration released a batch of documents after the speech, but they provided no proof that broad interference occurred or affected an election outcome.
Republican Secretary of State Michael Howe and Democratic challenger Ryan Braunberger, a state senator from Fargo, in interviews said voter information and voting results are secure in North Dakota.
Howe said while he couldn’t speak for other states, he believes North Dakota’s elections are secure and conducted in a free and fair manner.
“We’ve got proof of citizenship,” Howe said. “If you are getting a new North Dakota identification card, you have to prove your citizenship at that point. You need a North Dakota ID to vote in our elections.”
Voter rolls
Howe said every North Dakotan who receives an ID is put into the state’s voter file, managed by the North Dakota Department of Transportation, which includes people under age 18 and those who are noncitizen permanent residents of North Dakota. Those residents would be flagged at their polling location check-in tables as not eligible to vote.
“The only way (ineligible people voting) could happen is if there is an administrative error at the DOT,” Howe said. “Possible, sure. Anything is possible. But highly, highly unlikely.”
The Vital Records Division of the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services provides daily updates to the voter file for people who have died, Howe said.
Braunberger said he’s not worried about ineligible voters casting ballots in the state, even if they do have North Dakota ID cards, because of the check-in system used at polling locations to verify a voter’s eligibility.
“Obviously, we ask at the polling stations, ‘Are you 18? Are you a North Dakota resident? And, are you a U.S. citizen?’ If you are caught lying in any of that stuff, you are open to prosecution,” he said.
Sharing voter info
North Dakota’s voter file has not been shared with the Department of Homeland Security, and the department has not asked the state to share it, Howe said.
Braunberger said North Dakota should continue to protect the privacy of North Dakota citizens. It would also be difficult for a secretary of state to share that data because it is owned by the Department of Transportation.
Hack attacks
Howe said he participated in briefings conducted by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and FBI ahead of the 2024 election, when he was made aware that foreign adversaries may try to acquire voter data, but to his knowledge, no attempts have been made to access that information in North Dakota.
“I’ve got full faith and confidence in our North Dakota (Information Technology) systems that are protecting the integrity of the election process on that front,” Howe said.
Braunberger said NDIT is constantly monitoring hacking threats, and he is certain the state’s voter file is secure. He added motor vehicle departments in other states notify North Dakota when people move out of state and acquire new ID cards, which then updates the voter file.
Paper ballots
Howe stressed North Dakota uses paper ballots in every election that can always be audited.
Both candidates noted that touch-screen voting machines and ballot tabulators are not connected to the internet and still produce a paper ballot.
“Every single one of the ballots that are out there are paper, even when you use the express machine, you get a paper read out of it, and that’s what gets counted,” Braunberger said
Howe described the method for counties submitting election results as using a military-grade encryption portal. He agreed that the state’s method for compiling results is secure.
Mail-in ballots
In North Dakota, mail-in ballots are only sent to residents who submit applications to vote by mail. Signatures are verified against the application and those that don’t match are set aside to be verified by the voter or evaluated by county canvassing boards.
“I’ve even talked to people in the Legislature who have had their ballots flagged because their signatures did not match, so our systems are working,” Braunberger said. “And they go down to the county auditor to validate that it is truly them.”
Howe and Braunberger said the only potential problem they see with mail-in voting in North Dakota stems from potential delays in delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.
“The North Dakota Legislature has put all the processes in place to make sure one person, one vote, and that your vote is counted accurately, securely and in a fair manner,” Howe said.
Braunberger said a law passed in 2025 by the Legislature requiring ballots to be in the hands of election officials by the time polls close on Election Day needs more educational outreach to ensure voters are aware of the new deadline.
Braunberger said Trump’s election integrity rhetoric without proof was “dangerous” and reduces the confidence in election systems across the country.
“I think we need to boost our confidence in election systems, especially since we’ve had such apathy in people willing to vote at all,” Braunberger said. “We need to be increasing that, because we need more civic engagement … and his speech creates more mistrust.”
North Dakota Monitor reporter Michael Achterling can be reached at machterling@northdakotamonitor.com.
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