Early voting starts

Jamestown (CSi)  Early voting in Stutsman County starts Tuesday and runs through June 10th, at the Stutsman County Courthouse from 8-a.m. to 5-p.m.  A voting area will be set up in the lobby area on the first floor of the courthouse.

The courthouse will not be open for early voting on Saturdays this year, or on Monday June 13th.

Stutsman County Auditor and COO Casey Bradley says, there has not been a large number of early voters on Saturdays the past two elections.  The change also saves the county paying the election staff on those days.

He says on June 13th the staff  converts the data from all the early voting and absentee ballots to final elections data to make sure no one tries to vote twice.

132 absentee ballots have been sent to voters in Stutsman County, and  as of last Friday, 59 have been returned.

The primary election along with Jamestown City Council, City Park Board and Jamestown Public School Board elections will be held June 14.

County Commission candidates will be nominated to run in the November General Election.

Two ballot measures  will be decided in the primary election. State Measure 1 asks voters to approve Senate Bill 2351, the corporate farm law, which if approved will allow corporations to own and operate hog and dairy farms of up to 640 acres in North Dakota.

Stutsman County Measure 1 asks county voters if they would approve changing the county state’s attorney position to an appointed position or leave it an elected position.

Voters  can only vote under one political party on the primary election ballot. If anyone votes for candidates in different political parties on the same ballot, that ballot will be disqualified.

On the non-party portion of the ballot voters will decide on the state superintendent of public instruction, North Dakota Supreme Court justice and Southeast District Court judges.

The state ballot for North Dakota political parties lists candidates for U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, North Dakota Legislature and governor. Also listed on the political parties portion of the ballot are the state auditor, state treasurer, state insurance commissioner and public service commissioner

Other questions are on the non-party ballot are, whether the City Council should publish its meeting minutes in the official city newspaper. The other question asks if the Jamestown Public School District should publish a record of the proceedings from the School Board in a newspaper of general circulation of the school district for the next two years. Currently the Jamestown City Council and Jamestown Public School Board publish meeting minutes in The Jamestown Sun.

Bradley said primary elections don’t always mean there will be large voter turnouts. He said there was a high turnout in the 2014 general election, the one with eight state measures to vote on.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota voters will decide next month whether to uphold the 2015 Legislature’s move to loosen the state’s nearly century-old ban on corporate farming.

Lawmakers decided to allow non-family corporations to own hog and dairy operations.

Supporters say the exemption is needed to save the two dying industries by giving them more access to capital and opportunities to expand. They point out that the ban on corporate farming has not stemmed a steady loss of family farms through the years.

Opponents say family farming has served North Dakota well, and there’s no reason to change. They worry about opening the barn door to large, out-of-state corporations that might be less environmentally responsible — and tougher to be held accountable.