What Amendments Would Not Have Passed in North Dakota Under a 60% Requirement?

Measure 1 on North Dakota's November 2026 ballot would raise the bar for passing a constitutional amendment from a simple majority (50% plus one vote) to 60%. To understand what that change would actually mean, it helps to look backward, not forward, at amendments North Dakotans have already passed. Several would not have survived the threshold Measure 1 proposes.

This article walks through the recent history of North Dakota constitutional amendments, identifies ones in the last three decades that passed with less than 60% of the vote, and explains what would have happened to them if Measure 1 had been in place when they were on the ballot. 

Identifying These Measures

North Dakota's constitution currently allows constitutional amendments—whether referred by the legislature or placed on the ballot through citizen petition—to pass with a simple majority: 50% plus one vote. That means the side that more voters support is the one that wins. Reviewing the state's election results reveals a pattern: amendments regularly pass in the 51% to 59% range, comfortably clearing today's threshold but falling short of the 60% Measure 1 would require.

Which North Dakota Amendments Passed Below 60%?

Here are two constitutional amendments North Dakota voters approved that would have been rejected outright under a 60% rule.

2024 — Legacy Fund Transfers Amendment

Known as Constitutional Measure 3 in 2024 or the North Dakota Legacy Fund Transfers Amendment, this amendment changed the rules for transferring money out of North Dakota's oil-and-gas-tax-funded Legacy Fund. It passed with 52% of the vote. Under a 60% requirement, it would have failed, and the prior transfer rules would have stayed in place.

This measure enjoyed bipartisan support in both chambers of the Legislative Assembly, which referred it to the voters in April of 2023. In fact, out of the 141 legislators who voted to refer the amendment to the people, only two legislators voted against it. Nevertheless, if North Dakota had a 60% requirement in 2024, this amendment would have failed. 

2018 — Ethics Commission Amendment

This amendment created North Dakota's ethics commission, banned foreign political contributions, and set new rules on lobbying and conflicts of interest. It passed with 54% of the vote. Had there been a 60% requirement, the state would have no constitutionally-created ethics commission today.

Known as Measure 1 in 2018, the measure allowed North Dakota to join the 39 other states that, at the time, had independent ethics commissions. The Legislative Assembly had previously stymied attempts to pass the policy twice—in 2013 and 2015.

Were these the only times Amendments passed with a majority but less than 60% of the vote?

No, going back 30 years alone shows at least 6 more instances—for a total of 8 times since 1996—that the voters of North Dakota approved amendments with more than 50% but less than 60% of the vote. (Ballotpedia, 1996, Amendment 1 (2000), Amendment 4 (2000), 2002, and 2014)

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Why Does This Matter?

All of the amendments discussed in this article cleared the bar North Dakota voters have used as long as the state has existed: more Yes votes than No votes. None were particularly close calls by ordinary standards. Each had a clear majority behind it. But under a 60% requirement, they would have failed, and the minority of voters who opposed each measure would have overridden the majority who supported it.

Bottom Line:

North Dakota voters have repeatedly approved constitutional changes with majorities well above 50% but below 60%. If Measure 1 had already been in effect, none of those changes would be part of the state constitution today — regardless of how many voters supported them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this pattern only affect one political viewpoint?

These amendments covered a range of subjects—from ethics rules and tax policy to legislative terms and county elections. They were supported by members of different parties in the Legislative Assembly as well as by hundreds of thousands of North Dakotans who signed the petitions to put them on the ballot, voted for them on Election Day, or both. Majorities in the 51% to 59% range have supported amendments across the political spectrum, not just one side of the aisle.

Does Measure 1 apply to all elections?

If Measure 1 were to pass in North Dakota, the supermajority requirement would apply to both citizen-initiated and legislatively-referred amendments.

Is a supermajority requirement the same as minority rule?

In practice, any supermajority threshold gives a minority coalition the power to defeat a majority-supported measure. The higher the threshold, the smaller the minority that holds power. In Colorado, for instance, 55% of the vote is required to proactively amend the state constitution, so 45% of voters plus one can block an amendment. If Measure 1 were to pass, the percentage of voters that could block the will of the majority in North Dakota is even smaller. If 60% is required for passage, a blocking coalition needs only 40% of voters plus one vote to be successful.

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