Marvin Lepp for North Dakota Secretary of State

The steps to the filing process are fairly easy when you are getting started. Most of the time, that is. My experience was something that all candidates should be aware of because, it almost cost me my campaign right out of the gate.

Monday, March 14th, I sat down at my computer and started looking into the candidate filing process. Step one was fairly straight forward upon going to the Secretary of State website.

Part one is your ‘Affidavit of Candidacy.’ This one was a very easy process. You enter your name, address, contact information, email and website if you already have one. As you can see below, I had linked the Facebook page I built that morning. I later amended it to leppfornd.com.

Part two is the ‘Petition/Certificate of Nomination.’ This one is the crucial part of anyone’s campaign. This is what validates a candidate as legitimate to be on the primary ballot or general election.

The final step you fill out is ‘Statement of Interests.’ This asks a few more “about you questions.” Such questions are; place of employment, your spouse and where he/she works, and then any interests or entities you are or have been associated with.

I printed everything and went on to what I thought was my next step, getting my ‘Affidavit of Candidacy’ notarized.

When I got home on lunch break, I showed everything to my wife. As she looked the paperwork over, she stopped at the petition sheet and said, “That’s the wrong signature sheet.”

“I thought they didn’t look right, I got them straight from the website.”

She had pointed out that the petition sheet she had seen at the District 47 meeting was horizontal and not vertical. Also, there was no actual line for a signature.

I decided I would be delivering my notarized ‘Affidavit of Candidacy’ and ask questions in person the following day. When I dropped my Affidavit of Candidacy off with the Election Department in the Judicial Wing of the Capital, Lee Ann was there to greet me at the window. We spoke about the Petition form and when she looked, she agreed they were the wrong forms.

I explained the situation, where I had gotten the forms, and when I had printed them. She went back to her office and checked on her own. When she came back a few minutes later, she handed me the new sheets and offered to print off more for me. I asked about the signatures that I had already received on the old forms, to which I was assured they would do their best to make sure those were honored due to the mistake on the website.

Have a great day and God Bless.