UND announces nickname runoff vote week of Nov. 2

Fighting Hawks, Roughriders and Nodaks to be on ballot

Voting results are in for the University of North Dakota nickname, and a runoff vote will

take place the week of Nov. 2 between three names: Fighting Hawks, Roughriders,

and Nodaks. The runoff vote between these three names will be held for eligible

voters beginning Monday, Nov. 2 at noon Central Time and concluding at 11:59 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 6.

The preliminary vote, which concluded Friday night, Oct. 23, at 11:59 p.m. Central

Time, yielded the following results:

Fighting Hawks: 6,960 votes; 31.20 percent

Roughriders: 4,687 votes; 21.01 percent

Nodaks: 4,571 votes; 20.49 percent

North Stars: 3,231 votes; 14.48 percent

Sundogs: 2,858 votes; 12.81 percent

The voting guidelines previously communicated by the University provided

that any name receiving over 50 percent of votes would be determined to be

the University’s new nickname, and that otherwise a runoff vote would be held

to allow eligible voters to choose between the two top vote­getters. However,

as the number of votes for the second­ and third­highest vote­getters,

Roughriders and Nodaks, differed by only 116 votes, UND President Robert

Kelley has determined that both of these names should remain on the runoff

ballot along with Fighting Hawks.

Said President Kelley, “We appreciate the participation and input of the voters,

and are pleased that we have moved forward to three final choices. We look

forward to completing the last important step of this process through the runoff

vote.”

He added, “We were also pleased at the number of eligible voters who

participated in this process—over 22,000. This is the largest response UND

has ever received for an institution­wide online poll.”

The runoff vote will be conducted through Qualtrics, the third party online

voting platform provider that managed the preliminary nickname vote. The

runoff voting period will open at noon Central Time on Monday, Nov. 2, and

will close at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6. The University anticipates having

the results of the vote by early the week of Nov. 9. The name receiving the

most votes will be the new nickname for UND.

Voting will follow the same process used for the preliminary vote, and will be

open to the following groups:

• Current UND Students

• Current UND Faculty

• Current UND Staff

• UND Retirees

• UND Alumni

• UND Donors

• Current Season Ticket Holders to UND Athletic Events

Voters who fall into more than one of the above categories—such as a staff

member who is also an alumnus—may only vote once, and any identified

multiple votes will be voided.

During the voting process, eligible voters will cast one vote for a single option

on the ballot. Eligible voters will choose one of three nickname options (listed

below in alphabetical order):

Fighting Hawks

Nodaks

Roughriders

On Monday, Nov. 2, prior to the opening of the runoff vote at noon Central

Time, eligible voters will receive an email from Qualtrics with voting

instructions. This will be a different email than the one voters received for the

preliminary vote. The email will come from Qualtrics and the title line will say

“Runoff Vote.” Voters should once again retain this email so that they can

follow the voting instructions it contains when the voting period opens at noon

Central Time on Monday, Nov. 2. Eligible voters are encouraged to check

their junk mail/spam folders if they do not see the Qualtrics email in their

inbox.