Effort to put recreational cannabis question on North Dakota ballot fails

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — An effort to gather enough signatures to place a question about legalizing recreational marijuana on the ballot in North Dakota has fallen short. Organizers failed to turn in at least 31,164 valid signatures to the secretary of state by Saturday (Jan. 22, 2022) to put the question to voters. Sponsoring committee member Dustin Peyer, of Driscoll, told the Bismarck Tribune the group has gathered 19,500 signatures in its one-year time limit. Peyer said the signature threshold is a lot to accomplish by unpaid volunteers. A similar effort failed in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic hampered the group’s signature-gathering.