Heidi Heitkamp isn’t like most Democrats. The junior senator from North Dakota supports the Second Amendment: She defends gun rights publicly, she pushes pro-hunting bills, and she earned an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association. So, it’s odd that the North Dakota Democratic Party is trying to keep hunters from voting. But that's exactly what they're doing.

Democrats are warning hunters if they show up at the polls they may miss out on the next hunting season. The ads are well-designed and authoritative and the message, misleading: “Attention Hunters: Voting in North Dakota could cost you your out-of-state hunting licenses.” Put another way, it seems the party is telling voters that they can’t exercise one right without losing another.

North Dakota columnist Rob Port was the first to spot the misinformation campaign, and a cursory search using Facebook’s searchable database tool confirms it is the North Dakota Democratic Party behind the ads. But while the ads are real, when contacted by Port, the secretary of state and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department couldn’t think of any reason why voting would endanger a hunting license.





Whatever operative thought up this ad campaign clearly doesn’t understand the hunting demographic. Anyone willing to go through the paperwork necessary to hunt out-of-state will probably go through the trouble of looking up the law. What’s more, hunters are a politically motivated bunch. They probably won’t take kindly to this kind of stunt. It could end up backfiring.

Democrats routinely accuse Republicans of voter suppression. Just this week, Heitkamp accused Republicans of stifling the Native American vote after deciding “there are certain people in North Dakota they don’t want to vote.”

But Democrats don’t actually believe what they're saying when they use that line. A get-out-the-vote effort in support of Heitkamp reminds Native Americans on reservations that they don’t even have to register to vote. They just need government identification that shows a street address.

During a recent campaign forum, which was covered only by a tribal newspaper and later discovered by Port, Heitkamp told tribal leaders that "while there have been some changes in North Dakota's voting laws, I want everyone to know that voting is still easy here."

So much for all the panic.

Again, Port (whose blog is the best political read in North Dakota) was the first to spot postcards sent to North Dakota reservations encouraging them to “know your rights!” and “make your voice heard on November 6!” And it’s not a problem if voters don’t have tribal or state identification. As the mailer notes, even a tribal letter with a printed residential address is enough to vote.

At least in North Dakota then, it seems that Democrats don’t mind a little voter suppression. They complain about it, knowing it isn't real, and then turn around and try to cook up schemes to scare Republicans away from voting.