AP Decision Notes: What to expect in North Dakota's Democratic presidential primary
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voting ends Saturday in North Dakota’s Democratic presidential primary, with President Joe Biden looking to add the state’s handful of delegates to his insurmountable lead for his party’s nomination. The party-run contest rounds out the busiest month of voting on the presidential primary calendar, with 30 states plus the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories holding primaries and caucuses in the last 30 days.
The primary was conducted mostly by mail, from Feb. 20 through Saturday at noon CT. Ballots received after that time will not be counted. Voters may hand-deliver their mail ballots to the state party’s centralized drop-off point in Fargo but must call ahead to make sure a party staff member is available to receive them. A very limited amount of in-person voting was held March 22-24 at a different location each day to accommodate residents of Native American reservations.
In 2020, Biden lost North Dakota’s Democratic caucuses, which functioned like a small-scale, in-person primary. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont won the state with 53% of the vote, to 40% for Biden. The March 10 contest was one of the last primaries or caucuses held before the COVID-19 pandemic prompted several states to postpone their elections.
This time around, Biden is poised to win his first election in North Dakota against seven other candidates who collectively have not made much of an impact at the ballot box this season. The state party had originally planned to use ranked-choice voting, in which voters rank the candidates on the ballot in order of preference, but it was forced to scrap the idea when the Democratic National Committee rejected the proposal. Now, the primary will use traditional...