UND says 3 nickname choices will go to runoff vote

If any of the nickname choices got more than 50 percent of the vote, it will become the new moniker.

The vote was held through Qualtrics, an external survey technology provider, which will tally the votes and look for duplicates before releasing the results to UND next week.

The runoff will be held for eligible voters beginning noon Monday, November 2 and will end at 11:59 p.m. Friday, November 6.

However, since the second – and third-highest vote-getters – Roughriders and Nodaks – differed by only 116 votes, UND President Robert Kelley chose to put both of those names in the runoff along with Fighting Hawks, according a news release.

UND is picking a new name after retiring the Fighting Sioux moniker in 2012.

Despite a few issues with being able to vote early in the week, Johnson said his office and the UND Alumni Association and Foundation were able to help the “vast majority”, and he thought the vote went well.

University of North Dakota student Shane Moore said he didn’t really have a plan.

The university said it will likely announce the results early the week of November 9, and the name that receives the most votes will be UND’s new nickname. “We’re tied into campus right now and a lot are participating”.

“It’s interesting”, he said.

“We all just want a fair vote and we want to see our wishes fulfilled”, he said.

A United States Hockey League team in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, owns the federal trademark for Roughriders and an attorney representing the group sent a letter to UND in April saying the team would be open to making a deal.

Variations of “Nodaks” were submitted 124 times to the committee.

The preliminary vote saw 22,307 people cast ballots out of a possible 82,000 stakeholders who were eligible.

Voters who fall into more than one of the above categories may only vote once, and any identifiable votes will be voided.