North Dakota House Bill HB1250

North Dakota 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/13/25
• Refer: 1/13/25
• Report Pass: 1/23/25
• Engrossed: 1/27/25
• Refer: 2/13/25

Caption

A BILL for an Act to amend and reenact subsection 1 of section 39-06.1-10 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to entries against a driving record.

Summary

HB 1250 would change how certain low-level traffic violations are handled on a North Dakota driving record. Under current law, when the state receives notice of a traffic conviction or violation, the director enters the assigned points on the driver’s record. This bill creates an exception for violations worth two points or fewer: those violations would not be entered on the public driving record, but would instead be kept in a separate, nonpublic record. Even though these low-point violations would be kept off the public driving record, they would still count for limited purposes. The bill states that the points remain part of the driving record only for point-reduction calculations and for license-suspension purposes. The bill also preserves the director’s authority to receive and act on traffic conviction reports from federal, military, and tribal courts in North Dakota.

Impact

The bill would amend section 39-06.1-10 of the North Dakota Century Code, narrowing what traffic offenses are publicly reflected on a driver’s record. It would not eliminate the underlying violations or points, but would change the recordkeeping and public-access rules for offenses carrying two points or fewer. The practical effect would be to reduce the visibility of minor traffic violations while maintaining their use in administrative enforcement, including point reduction and suspension decisions.

Sentiment

The bill appears to have had broad support in the House, passing second reading 86-5, but it ultimately failed in the Senate on a 21-24 vote. That voting pattern suggests the proposal was generally well received in one chamber but faced enough concern or disagreement in the other to prevent enactment. No committee transcript is available, so the record does not show detailed debate, but the close Senate vote indicates the issue was contested.

Contention

The main point of contention appears to have been whether minor traffic violations should be hidden from the public driving record while still counting for enforcement purposes. Supporters likely viewed the bill as a privacy or administrative cleanup measure for low-level offenses, while opponents may have worried that removing these entries from the public record could reduce transparency or complicate how driving histories are understood by insurers, employers, or the public. The Senate’s narrow defeat indicates disagreement over that balance between privacy and public accountability.