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.
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