North Dakota Traffic School: How the Points Election Works

Before you decide: what you are actually buying

Electing the course leaves the ticket in place. The statute is explicit that you lose the bond even after choosing the class. You pay the fine, the violation is admitted, and the only thing held back is the point penalty.

That can still save a license. An adult loses driving privileges for a time at 12 points, and a driver under 18 loses the license at 6. Holding a 3 or 5 point speeding ticket out of that count may be what keeps you on the road.

Before you decide: are you eligible?

The ticket must be worth 5 points or fewer. Three things shut you out: an election already used in the 12 months before this ticket's date, an offense worth 6 points or more, and any offense the law keeps out of noncriminal handling.

Those excluded offenses cover DUI or actual physical control, reckless driving in both its forms, driving away from a crash, driving while your license is suspended or revoked, and certain offenses involving unsafe vehicles or crashes with emergency vehicles. Two common tickets also fail on points alone: careless driving and going around a stopped school bus are worth 6 each.

In the first two weeks: deadlines and money

Fourteen days after you are cited is your window to post bond. You can do it online with North Dakota Courts, by mail, or at the court in the county of the stop. Make the election in that same step. From the day you tell the court, NDDOT needs the certificate inside 30 days.

Budget for two payments. One goes to the court as the bond. For speeding that is $20 or $3 per mph over, whichever is larger, or $5 per mph on roads posted above 65, and another $20 is added once you are 16 or more over. The other is the course fee, which each sponsor sets on its own.

Example: 22 over in a 55 zone is $66 at $3 per mph, plus the $20 that applies from 16 over, so an $86 bond, and, on NDDOT's schedule, 5 points. That ticket qualifies. At 26 over it would be 9 points and would not.

Choosing a course

NDDOT posts its approved defensive driving courses on the points page. In October 2026 the list had 22 online choices, among them AAA's Roadwise Driver, the AARP Driver Safety Program, Alive at 25, the North Dakota Safety Council and the National Safety Council. We do not recommend any particular provider.

A course missing from the list earns nothing. Match the exact course name on your receipt to NDDOT's list before you begin.

If you already have points: the trade off

There is a cost. Once you elect, you give up the separate 3 point course reduction in section 39-06.1-13. With older tickets already on the record, do the math: blocking 5 new points beats erasing 3 old ones, while blocking a single point probably does not.

Also keep in mind that every quarter year with no new violation trims a point, so a small old ticket may disappear soon without any help.

If you hold a CDL

Nothing in the statute leaves CDL holders out, yet the forfeited bond is still an admission. Under federal rule 49 CFR 384.226, a state may not mask a commercial driver's moving violation or keep it off the record, so plan on the conviction showing up even if North Dakota adds no points.

When a clean record is part of your job, phone NDDOT's Driver License Division, 855-633-6835, first and ask exactly what the record will show.