The North Dakota Democratic-Non-Partisan League recently paid for a Facebook ad threatening the state’s hunters with the loss of their out-of-state hunting license if they vote in the upcoming congressional elections.
“ATTENTION HUNTERS: If you vote in North Dakota, you may forfeit hunting licenses you have in other states. If you want to keep your out-of-state hunting licenses, you may not want to vote in North Dakota,” the ad reads.
The ad, which was verified by Facebook and catalogued as a political ad paid for by the North Dakota Democratic-NPL, links to a page titled “Hunter Alerts,” which contains a number of logos but has no further information regarding the potential loss of hunting licenses.
North Dakota secretary of state Al Jaeger was at a loss to explain what the ad might refer to when contacted by local blogger Rob Port.
“We’re not involved at all in the requirements for getting a hunting license. A question like what you have needs to be directed to the Game & Fish Department. I doubt that there’s any connection,” Jaeger told Port.
Randy Meissner, the licensing manager for the North Dakota Game & Fish Department, was similarly confused when asked about the ad.
“We’ve never heard of that,” Meissner said.
Senator Heidi Heitkamp, who is locked in a tight race for reelection with Republican representative Kevin Cramer, gave the North Dakota Democratic-NPL $3 million from her campaign’s war chest, which now appears to have at least partially financed a voter-suppression campaign.
Just days ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, Democrats have increasingly accused Republicans concerned about the integrity of the ballot of engaging in voter suppression. The issue has become particularly prominent in North Dakota as a number of recent reports suggest Native Americans living on reservations may not be eligible to vote because they rely on P.O. boxes rather than typical addresses.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, has also come under scrutiny in recent days for his role in the attempted purge of some 53,000 voters from the rolls due to discrepancies between the information they provided when registering and the information already contained in government databases.
Senator Kamala Harris of California accused Kemp of engaging in “voter suppression” in a Thursday tweet.
When a candidate for governor — who also happens to be responsible for overseeing Georgia’s elections — is trying to purge 53,000 mostly Black voters from the voting rolls, we have to call it what it is: voter suppression. We need to fight back even harder at the ballot box. https://t.co/hMZZCXDfhF
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 31, 2018
The North Dakota Democratic-NPL did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.