A county canvassing board rejected the absentee ballot of North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum’s wife

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A county canvassing board in North Dakota rejected the absentee ballot of Kathryn Burgum, the wife of Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, from the June election.

Cheryl Biller, a Democrat who served on the Cass County Canvassing Board, confirmed that the panel voted unanimously last month to reject her absentee ballot because of mismatching signatures. The governor is in the running to be former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

About 150 ballots were looked at twice for signatures issues, but nine drew greater scrutiny by the board, and six ballots were rejected, Biller said. County canvassing boards certify election results and take action on late-arriving absentee ballots or set-aside ballots cast at the polls.

Biller said the handwriting in the first lady’s case “just didn’t match.” She said she remembers her ballot because after the meeting, someone observing came up and mentioned the first lady’s ballot was among those rejected. Her ballot was for Kathryn Helgaas, her maiden name, Biller said.

Burgum spokesman Dawson Schefter said, “Kathryn completed her absentee ballot. Cass County staff had a question about it, reached a determination, and the matter is resolved.”

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She voted in the Republican primary, Schefter said. In deep-red North Dakota, which has no voter registration, the competitive Republican primary is where many races are effectively decided, given the dominance of the GOP in the state.

Biller said she is glad she didn’t recognize the first lady’s name at the time because it would have put a bias in place.

“She is a voter like everybody else, right? She should be treated the same, and so I think I was glad that I didn’t recognize it at the time. She simply was another voter whose inconsistent signature we were considering,” Biller said.

About 60 ballots were rejected in Cass County — North Dakota’s most populated county and home to Fargo — for a variety of reasons, said Craig Steingaard, the county’s election administrator. Those include missing or mismatched signatures and late or missing postmarks, he said. Steingaard declined to confirm the rejection of Kathryn Burgum’s absentee ballot.

As first lady, Kathryn Burgum has been a champion for combating addiction, using her personal story of recovery from alcohol addiction. The Burgums married in 2016.