On this day, June 29, 1948, North Dakota voters approved a ballot measure to ban parking meters on all public streets.
The measure, which appeared on the ballot as Initiative 2, prohibited the use of parking meters, or any devices "requiring the deposit therein of coins or tokens for the privilege of parking cars or vehicles", in all political subdivisions across the state. Voters approved Initiative 2 by a margin of 1.32 points, with 96,192 (50.66%) in favor of the ban and 93,670 (49.34%) against it.
Support for Initiative 2 was led by Howard Henry — a farmer and the Democratic Party's nominee in the gubernatorial election that year — after he received parking tickets on his regular business commute to Minot.
On Nov. 2, 1948, voters decided on another ballot measure related to the parking meter ban. The measure, which appeared on the ballot as Initiative 1, would have repealed the ban enacted by Initiative 2. Voters defeated Initiative 1 by a margin of 11.28 points, with 89,483 (44.36%) in favor of repeal and 112,227 (55.64%) against.
Since then, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly has attempted to repeal the ban on two occasions.
In 1951, the state legislature passed a law by a two-thirds vote to repeal the ban. The law was put to a referendum — once again led by Howard Henry — and appeared on the ballot on June 24, 1952, as Referendum 1. Referendum 1 was defeated by voters by a margin of 1.9 points, with 82,740 (49.05%) in favor of the law and 85,940 (50.95%) against it.
In 2017, the state legislature attempted to pass Senate Bill 2247 (SB 2247). The North Dakota State Senate initially approved SB 2247 by a 33-10 vote, while the North Dakota House of Representatives approved an amended version in a 53-38 vote. After a joint conference committee, the version adopted by the committee was approved in the state Senate by a 33-13 vote, but rejected in the state House by a 29-59 vote.
At the time, Gov. Doug Burgum (R) said he was "disappointed that we've missed an overdue opportunity to restore a small, missing piece of local control to political subdivisions and that [North Dakota will] continue to be the only state in the nation denying cities a tool that helps support locally owned retailers and boosts economic activity in core business districts."
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