Is North Dakota Really a State?

Since no one I know has ever actually seen North Dakota, I always wondered if it wasn’t mythical, the geographical equivalent of snipe or jackalopes.  It turns out that while North Dakota exists (maybe) it may not actually be a state :

An 82-year old Grand Forks man has pointed out a constitutional flaw that questions whether North Dakota has ever been a state.

John Rolczynski points out the original state constitution left out the executive branch, the Governor and other high ranking officials when it explains who needs to take the oath of office. Rolczynski says that puts the state constitution in conflict with the federal one, making it invalid.

This spring, Senator Tim Mathern of Fargo introduced a bill to fix the constitution’s wording.

North Dakota voters will need to approve the constitutional amendment in November of next year.

Woah, not so fast. Now that this error has been discovered I think the rest of the country should have some input on how we correct it. Maybe instead of readmitting North Dakota (seriously, is it really a place?) we could let one of the other territories have a shot at statehood.

What about Guam? I visited there once and it seemed like a nice place. And Guam exports things like papaya while all North Dakota exports is snipe and jackalopes.

We could swap them out and we wouldn’t even have to change the number of stars on our flags. Something to consider before we make any hasty decision.