By JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — As North Dakota voters later this year prepare to elect a new secretary of state for the first time in nearly 30 years, the only declared candidate so far has a natural pitch: He’s out to modernize the office.
Michael Howe, a Casselton farmer who earned a spot on the powerful House Appropriations Committee in just his second term in the chamber, is seeking the GOP endorsement to replace 78-year-old Al Jaeger, who isn’t seeking re-election.
Howe, 35, told The Associated Press in an interview that his vision for the office includes using technology to streamline operations, especially to ease the process for business filings. And though North Dakota — a solidly red state that Donald Trump won easily in 2020 — hasn’t seen the same challenges to the election as other states, Howe said he would work to reassure citizens that the state’s systems are secure.
“It’s always been a very important office,” Howe said. “And the spotlight is on the office more than ever because of the 2020 election.”
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With the GOP state convention just two weeks away, no other Republicans have emerged seeking to replace Jaeger. And Democrats — whose own convention starts next week — don’t have a declared candidate.
Howe, of West Fargo, got his start in politics as a legislative assistant and policy adviser to former U.S. Rep. Rick Berg, and later managed Kelly Armstrong’s successful U.S. House campaign in 2018. He has the support of powerful people; Armstrong and Gov. Doug Burgum each contributed $1,000 to his last state House campaign.
The secretary of state is best known as overseer of elections. But the office — with 33 employees and a two-year budget of about $14 million — also tracks campaign spending reports, registers lobbyists, licenses businesses, home inspectors, contractors, notaries public, nonprofit groups and other organizations. It maintains a central indexing system of liens against crops, real estate and other property and is a repository for trademarks and trade names.
Under Jaeger, the office has generally gotten high marks for the way it administers elections. But Democrats who challenged Jaeger in the past, as well as his last Republican rival, portrayed the office’s other operations as out of date.
Companies that do business in Minnesota and North Dakota often complain that North Dakota’s process is more burdensome, Howe said.
“I’ve heard the frustrations,” Howe said. “We need to bring our secretary of state’s office on par with other states and streamline it and make it as user-friendly as possible. We are a pro-business state and time is money to businesses.”
Rep. Josh Boschee, who lost narrowly to Jaeger in 2018 as he sought to become the first Democrat to hold a statewide office in nearly a decade, said the office has made improvements in the past four years under Jaeger but is still largely “antiquated.”
Critics point to the office’s website as difficult to navigate. Jaeger has long said those attacks were unfair, and his office has done much to improve efficiencies over the years, including transforming the office from heavily reliant on paper to a more computerized operation.
But Jaeger’s own party snubbed him four years ago, endorsing another Republican who had attacked Jaeger as behind the times. That Republican eventually quit the race when an old conviction resurfaced, clearing the way for Jaeger to run as an independent, and he narrowly beat Boschee.
Neither Boschee nor Rep. Corey Mock, another Democrat who tried and failed to unseat Jaeger in the past, said they were interested in a new run. Both said they agree with Howe’s priorities, especially highlighting the state’s election security, which they say is strong.
“The biggest challenge will be maintaining the trust and legitimacy of our elections — there are so many questions and doubts,” Mock said.
Howe told AP he would aim to “build trust through communication.” He said he would plans social media campaigns, including producing YouTube videos, to prove that to the public that the state’s elections are secure.
“I want to show what happens to their vote once it goes through the machine,” Howe said. “Communicating with the public is paramount to eliminate any confusion.”
The secretary of state also serves on several boards including the Land Board, an especially important panel that oversees the state Land Department, an agency that leases rights to state-owned land used for grazing cattle and producing hay. It also leases rights to produce oil, coal, gravel and other minerals from state property and manages a number of state funds.
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