North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum cannot appoint a legislator to fill the seat won by a man who died from COVID-19 a month before the election, the state’s highest court said in a unanimous opinion published Tuesday.
On Election Day, Republican David Andahl, a rancher, mustered the second-highest plurality in the four-candidate field one month after he died from complications of the coronavirus.
On Tuesday, the high court said the district’s Republican committee — not the governor or the third-place challenger — should fill the seat by appointment.
“It is undisputed that the Republican Party led an informational campaign to notify District Eight voters of Andahl’s death and urge them to still vote for him,” the court wrote.
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