North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has no authority to appointment a coal company executive to fill a state House seat won by a Republican candidate who died before the election, the state's attorney general said Wednesday.
Burgum announced Wednesday that he was appointing BNI Energy President Wade Boeshans to the seat won Tuesday by David Andahl, who died last month from COVID-19.
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said in a statement that Burgum's appointment on the day following the election "is both inaccurate and untimely."