WASHINGTON (AP) — North Dakota’s lone U.S. House member faces a partial rematch of her 2024 nomination race in a state primary on Tuesday. Also on the ballot is a proposed amendment to the state constitution, while residents of Fargo will elect a new mayor.
Republican U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak seeks a second term. She faces another primary challenge from former foreign service officer Alex Balazs, who placed fourth in the 2024 contest with 4% of the vote behind her and others. Fedorchak went on to win the general election with 69% of the vote against Democrat Trygve Hammer, who also is running again and will face the winner of this year’s Republican primary.
Voters will also choose nominees for several top statewide offices, although candidates for most of those offices, such as secretary of state, state attorney general and state agriculture commissioner, are running unopposed.
Many of the state’s top elected offices, such governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and both U.S. Senate seats, won’t be up for election until 2028 or later.
In another statewide contest, voters will decide a ballot measure that would bar future proposed constitutional amendments from addressing more than one subject at a time. Instead, they would be limited in scope to a single subject.
In North Dakota’s largest city, Fargo, voters will elect a new mayor to succeed term-limited incumbent Tim Mahoney. Five candidates are running to replace him in the nonpartisan office. This year’s race marks two significant changes from previous mayoral elections. In 2025, the City Commission voted to change the position of mayor from part time to full time. This will also be the first mayoral election since the state banned the unique voting method Fargo voters had adopted in 2018. Under the city’s “approval voting” system, there was no limit on the number of candidates a voter could select, and the candidate receiving the most votes would win. The system was designed to produce winners with broad-based support among voters.
Also on the ballot are primaries for the state Legislature. Slightly more than half of North Dakota’s 47 state Senate and 94 state House seats are up for election in 2026. Republicans enjoy overwhelming supermajorities in both chambers.
North Dakota is one of the most reliably Republican-voting states in the nation. Republican presidential candidates have won the state in the last 15 elections. It was Donald Trump’s fourth-best state in the 2016 and 2020 elections and his third-best in 2024, when he received 67% of the vote.
Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:
When do polls close?
Polls close at 7 p.m. local time, which is 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. ET. Most polls are in Central time and close at 8 p.m. ET, but some polls are in Mountain time and close at 9 p.m. ET.
What’s on the ballot?
The Associated Press will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. House, state Senate, state House, Public Service Commission and state school superintendent, as well as a general election for Fargo mayor and a statewide ballot measure.
Who gets to vote?
Any eligible voter may participate in any party’s primary.
How many voters are there?
North Dakota is the only state that doesn’t require voter registration. Any U.S. citizen who will be 18 by the general election and has lived in North Dakota for 30 days prior to Election Day is considered eligible to vote. As of the 2024 general election, there were about 594,000 eligible voters in North Dakota.
How many people actually vote?
About 372,000 North Dakota voters cast ballots in the 2024 presidential general election. Participation in primaries is much lower. In the 2024 state primaries, about 20,000 voters participated in the Democratic primaries for U.S. Senate and governor, when the nominees ran unopposed. On the Republican side that year, about 83,000 voters participated in an uncontested U.S. Senate primary while about 93,000 participated in a contested gubernatorial primary.
How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?
Early in-person voting and mail voting comprised about 41% of the total vote across both parties’ primaries in 2024. It was about 48% in the 2022 state primaries.
As of Friday, about 37,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election.
When are early and absentee votes released?
North Dakota’s 53 counties vary in how they release results from early in-person and mail voting, but more than two-thirds of them tend to release all or nearly all of their results at once in the first vote report. This includes results from all voting methods: early in person, mail ballots, and in person on Election Day. The four most populous counties, Cass, Burleigh, Grand Forks and Ward, tend to release a mix of all vote types over the course of the night.
How long does vote-counting usually take?
In the 2024 state primary, the AP first reported results at 9 p.m. ET, just as the last polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 11:56 p.m. ET, with about 99% of total votes counted.
When will the AP declare a winner?
The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
How do recounts work?
Recounts in North Dakota primaries are automatic if the vote margin is 1% or less of the votes cast for the top vote-getter. Primary candidates may also request and pay for a recount if the margin is more than 1% but less than 2% of the top vote-getter’s vote total. Ballot measures decided by a margin of 0.25% or less will be recounted automatically. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
Are we there yet?
As of Tuesday, there will be 147 days until the 2026 midterm elections.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.
Robert Yoon, The Associated Press
