Shared Parenting Initiative to appear on 2006 ballot
On Election Day, North Dakota voters will have the chance to decide if joint custody should be the default in divorce cases.
If passed, North Dakota will be the first state to enact such a law.
The Shared Parenting Initiative, if enacted, will give parents joint custody of their children in the event of a divorce unless one parent can be proven to be an unfit guardian.
Mitchell Sanderson, a member of the American Coalition of Fathers and Children, has worked since 2003 to reform North Dakota custody laws.
He said the main problem with family law is the custody battle.
“ Both parents have equal responsibility for their kids,” Sanderson said. “If you are fit, you should have a right to see your kids.”
Sanderson said in an April 2006 interview with The Spectrum that he felt working with the courts and legislature was ineffective.
Sanderson read about how shared parenting advocates in Massachusetts collected signatures for a non-binding ballot question in the 2004 election.
Eighty-five percent of voters voted in favor of the measure. Sanderson decided to try a similar measure in North Dakota.
Sanderson and several volunteers spent months collecting signatures at grocery stores, the Red River races, Red River Valley Fair, Rib Fest, a Rob Zombie concert and anywhere they thought they might encounter large groups of people.
Volunteers also went door to door to collect signatures. Students for Men’s Equality, an NDSU student organization, set up a booth in the Memorial Union in March to collect signatures.
By the time Sanderson handed in the petition for the Aug. 8 deadline, he and the volunteers had collected around 17,500 signatures — well over the 12,844 needed to put the measure on the ballot.
The secretary of state then verified the signatures and sent out a media release informing citizens the measure would be on the ballot.
Some of the signatures turned out to be invalid or improperly filled out, but the petition still had enough valid signatures to be placed on the 2006 ballot.
The measure needs a simple majority of the vote to pass. If passed, it becomes law 30 days later.
If the measure is enacted, current non-custodial parents would have the opportunity to have a fitness hearing and possibly gain joint custody of their children.
Under the current system, parents may have new custody hearings every two years.
In addition to making joint custody the default, the Shared Parenting Initiative would also reform the child support payment system.
In the current system, courts factor only the non-custodial parent’s income into figuring out the amount of child support to pay.
The Shared Parenting Initiative would factor both parents’ income into the equation. Each parent would pay child support during the times the other parent had custody of the children.