State Rep. Brandon Prichard, left, trails Rep. SuAnn Olson in the District 8 primary. He will likely be close enough to request a recount, but says he will not. (Photos provided by the North Dakota Legislative Assembly)

Legislative races in two North Dakota districts are close enough to warrant possible recounts, including District 8, where controversial Republican Rep. Brandon Prichard finished third, likely keeping him off the November ballot and removing him from the Legislature. 

The other district where there may be a recount is District 26 in western North Dakota, where Rep. Kelby Timmons finished third on the Republican ballot.

Prichard, known for pro-Christian and anti-LGTBQ views, told the North Dakota Monitor he would not ask for a recount.

Rep. Jeremy Olson, the top vote-getter in District 26, said seeing Prichard being ousted would be “particularly satisfying.” 

“He’s the reason for so much negativity,” Olson said, pointing to attack ads on social issues funded by a political action committee led by Prichard, the Citizens Alliance of North Dakota. 

If the results from Tuesday hold, Prichard will be replaced by Mike Berg, who lost to Prichard in the primary two years ago. There were no Democratic-NPL Party candidates in District 8, which runs from north of Bismarck to the South Dakota state line. 

“Conservative Republicans were playing offense everywhere, so losses don’t change our current foothold in the Legislature,” Prichard told the North Dakota Monitor in a text. “There is a lot of good to look at and a lot to learn.” 

Recount rules

An automatic recount is triggered when two candidates are within 1% of the votes of the top vote-getter. In the District 8 case, 1% of Berg’s total is 16 votes. 

Candidates can ask for a recount, at their own expense, if the margin is between 1% and 2% of the top vote-getter. In District 18, that would be 33 votes, with Prichard trailing Rep. SuAnn Olson by 30 votes. 

But those percentages and vote margins can change as absentee votes come in. Absentee votes that were postmarked by June 10 can be counted up to the county canvassing meeting on June 24. If the margin is between 1% and 2% that day, candidates have four days to request a recount. 

North Dakota Secretary of State Michael Howe said Wednesday there were 97 absentee ballots in District 8 that had been requested, but had not arrived by Election Day. Not all the ballots may arrive. 

Timmons trails Roger Maki by 24 votes, less than 2% of Jeremy Olson’s total as unofficial winner in the district. There are 227 outstanding absentee ballots in District 26, which includes McKenzie and Dunn counties. 

Calls and text messages seeking comment from Timmons and Maki on Wednesday were not returned. 

Attack ads

Candidates in both districts pointed to attack ads as affecting the results. 

“It’s very disappointing,” Rep. SuAnn Olson, R-Baldwin, said of the results. “The tremendous negative campaigning had to take a toll.” 

She pointed to ads coming from the Brighter Future Alliance that targeted Prichard. 

Jeremy Olson said the Citizens Alliance group led by Prichard used “innuendo and lies,” to discredit candidates. “Not just in my district but a lot of other districts,” he said. 

SuAnn Olson said the same could be said about the Brighter Future Alliance. 

One complaint from SuAnn Olson was that Berg’s campaign handed out materials that identified him as Rep. Mike Berg when he was not an office holder. 

Berg said there were multiple examples of Prichard-backed candidates using the same tactic, and when someone complained to his campaign, it switched to different materials. 

Pat Finken of Brighter Future Alliance said, “Brandon’s misdeeds have come back to haunt him.” 

Finken said that when a candidate only tells part of a story, an organization such as Brighter Future owes it to voters to provide them with the rest of the story. 

The District 8 race was the only legislative race the nonprofit group was active in for the 2024 primary. Finken said it also was active in the U.S. House race with ads about Rick Becker’s background. 

Prichard is the subject of a Federal Election Commissions complaint in part because of his work with Citizens Alliance of North Dakota that raises money to support far-right conservative candidates.

Jeremy Olson said Republicans need to work together and put some “pretty dirty stuff” from the primary behind them.  

“It’s all about the healing process now,” he said. 

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