Congressional age-limit advocate expects measure to pass, but be challenged in court

BISMARCK — The head of an effort to get a congressional age limit on the North Dakota ballot said this week he’s confident it will pass.

The measure, if approved by voters during the June 11 primary, would create a constitutional amendment prohibiting North Dakotans from being elected or appointed to Congress if they would reach their 81st birthday before the end of their term.

“I believe that it’ll pass,” Jared Hendrix, chair of the measure’s sponsoring committee, told the North Dakota Monitor. “It’s a very legitimate, serious issue that I think people are going to want to weigh in on.”

When asked if people can still contribute to society after reaching 80 years old, Hendrix said they can, but just not as a member of Congress from North Dakota.

“There’s no question that people at that stage in their life have incredible wisdom and value to offer, and they can continue to offer that in a lot of ways,” said Hendrix, who also is chair of the NDGOP District 10 in Fargo. “On average, that’s just not the case for most people. Most people see a measurable decline, both physically and mentally, around the age of 80 and beyond.”

North Dakota has had at least two representatives to Congress who served into their 80s. Former Sen. Quentin Burdick served in the U.S. Senate from 1960 to until his death in 1992 at age 84. Former Sen. Milton Young served in the Senate for nearly 36 years, from 1945 to 1981, when he left office at age 83.

In response to a potential court challenge if the measure were to pass in June, Hendrix said he believes it’s “highly likely.”

“What we’ve said and what we’ve believed all along is that we believe it’s within our state’s rights, our 10th Amendment rights, to do this and we would hope that the courts would affirm it the same way,” he said.

Section 3 of the age limit measure states, “in the event superior law requires age-limited candidates to appear on the ballot,” candidates would have a ballot advisory appear next to their names indicating their age.

The Congressional Age Limit measure was approved for the ballot by the Secretary of State’s Office on March 15 after 32,370 signatures were verified on the petition, more than the required 31,164 signatures.

However, 9,735 of the total 42,107 submitted signatures were ruled invalid by the Secretary of State’s Office.

In a news release, the agency said the signatures were rejected for a variety of reasons, including inadequate signatures, circulator errors, omission of address or date, out-of-state addresses and notary errors.

Additionally, 2,272 signatures were determined to be invalid by the agency because two non-U.S. citizens collected the signatures, which is a violation of state law, according to the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office.

Hendrix said the sponsoring committee used a third-party canvasser to obtain most of the signatures and said those two canvassers lied to the company when asked if they were U.S. citizens.

“If somebody lied, then that’s unfortunate that they lied, but, of course, that doesn’t mean that the people that signed their signatures did not intend to sign it,” he said.

He also said some of the addresses rejected by the Secretary of State’s office seemed to be invalidated for not including the directional portion of the street, like Fifth Street North. The Secretary of State’s Office confirmed directional portions of an address are required to make the address complete.

“As long as you have enough information that you can determine that that elector exists and lives at that address, it should not be thrown out,” Hendrix said.

Hendrix also led the effort to place a term limits measure on the 2022 general election ballot. Sixty-three percent of voters approved the measure, which limits legislators to no more than eight years in each chamber and limits the governor to two four-year terms.

Hendrix said ballot measures considered by North Dakota voters provide the “ultimate check and balance” on a legislature that may be disconnected from the general electorate.

“Especially like a term limits issue, they are not going to vote against their own power,” he said. “So you have to go to the people on that.”

Hendrix also agreed the state’s constitution isn’t something that should be changed carelessly or recklessly.

“It’s good to be hesitant on changing the constitution excessively,” he said. “In the case of term limits, and in the case of this measure, I don’t think there was any other way to do it.”

Hendrix is also part of a lawsuit against the state of North Dakota, which he joined last year when political advocacy groups and a petition company sued the state over a provision in the state constitution that prohibits out-of-state residents from circulating petitions for voter-initiated ballot measures. The case is set to go to trial in 2025.

This story was originally published on NorthDakotaMonitor.com