Nevada: US judge sides with Nevada tribes in voting rights case | Associated Press

Two Native American tribes in Nevada have won an emergency court order in a federal lawsuit accusing the Republican secretary of state and two counties of discriminating against them under the Voting Rights Act. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du issued a temporary injunction in Reno late Friday requiring the establishment of satellite polling places on two northern Nevada reservations ahead of next month’s election in the Western battleground state. The Pyramid Lake and Walker River Paiute (PY’-ewt) tribes say their members are being denied equal access to the polls as a result of the long distances some must travel to vote early or cast ballots on Election Day.

Nevada: Judge rules partially in favor of tribes in federal suit | Reno Gazette Journal

A federal judge on Friday found partially in favor of two Native American tribes in their lawsuit against the Secretary of State’s Office and two Nevada counties in a voter disenfranchisement case. Federal Judge Miranda Du released her ruling late Friday afternoon which found in favor of the Pyramid Lake and Walker River Paiute tribes’ request for early in-person polling in Nixon and Schurz and Election Day in-person polling at Nixon. She denied the request for satellite voter registration sites in both places. “In this case, while injunctive relief would impose costs upon defendants, there is no indication it would interfere with the state’s ability to move forward with the November election as scheduled,” Du said in the ruling. “The public interest is served by the enforcement of the (Voting Rights Act of 1965) and the inclusion of protected classes in the political process.”

Nevada: Ruling expected in tribal voter disenfranchisement lawsuit by Friday | Reno Gazette-Journal

A federal judge said she will rule on an emergency injunction regarding a federal lawsuit by two Native American tribes alleging voter disenfranchisement by two Nevada counties and the secretary of state’s office. U.S. District Judge Miranda Du heard a full day of arguments and testimony on Tuesday from the Pyramid Lake and Walker River Paiute tribes requesting satellite voter registration, early polling places and Election Day voter sites from Washoe and Mineral counties. The tribes made the requests in August, which the counties denied. They filed suit in early September, alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Native Americans are considered a protected group under the act. The counties denied any discrimination is taking place and state the reason for denial is logistics and cost.

Nevada: US Justice Department backs Nevada tribes on voting test | Associated Press

The Justice Department is siding with two Nevada tribes’ interpretation of a key part of the U.S. Voting Rights Act at issue in a legal battle with state and county officials over minority access to the polls. Lawyers for the two Paiute tribes are scheduled to go before a federal judge in Reno Tuesday with their emergency request for a court order establishing satellite voting sites on their reservations before the November election. They accuse Nevada’s Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, Washoe and Mineral counties of illegally denying tribe members voting access afforded to people in wealthier, mostly white neighborhoods. The counties say the sudden change would cost too much, and the state argues it has no authority to intervene. But the Justice Department said in a new filing Monday all three appear to be confusing voting rights with “voting convenience.”

Arizona: Native Americans Still Face Obstacles to Voting Access | Arizona Public Media

Native Americans won the right to vote in Arizona in 1948. But open access to the polls didn’t come until 1976, when a U.S. Supreme Court decision forced state officials to drop a literacy requirement. While access here has improved since then, Native voters in Arizona and around the country still face many unique barriers when trying to cast their ballots. Laura Riddle doesn’t have a standard address, so GPS doesn’t do much to help find her. A freeway exit number and basic directions to a convenience store are more reliable. Riddle lives on the Gila River Indian Community, which sits just south of the Phoenix metro area. Despite the community’s general proximity to the city, the reservation spans almost 600 square miles, much of it rural. And just like Riddle, many residents here don’t have an address. “We’re used to giving directions out here by landmarks,” she said. “There’s a tree. There’s two trees, there’s a big bush with purple flowers on it.”

Utah: Navajos ask federal judge to restore polling places in Utah | Associated Press

Navajo Nation member Davis Filfred prefers casting a ballot the old fashioned way at a polling place. But he’s worried he may have to make a three-hour round-trip drive this November to make that happen. San Juan County in southeastern Utah switched to an all-mail ballot election system in 2014, leaving only one polling place in the northern county seat of Monticello for that election. That meant tribal members who live in far-flung corners of the county had to drive twice as far as white residents, according to a Navajo group that filed a federal lawsuit in February over the new system. The group urged U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish Wednesday to approve their request for a court order requiring the county to open nine polling places for the November election, three satellite locations for early voting and staff them with bilingual workers who can help Navajo speakers. “There’s no way for us to have a redo of the upcoming election,” said attorney Arusha Gordon, represented the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission.

Alaska: The painstaking work of translating Alaska’s ballot into Native languages | Alaska Dispatch News

After hours in the state elections office in Midtown Anchorage last month, two women stared at a computer screen, murmuring words in Yup’ik. They were struggling over the translation for the phrase “risk-adjusted return.” One of the women, Lorina Warren, looked across the table at Indra Arriaga, language assistance compliance manager for the Division of Elections. “Tell…

Nevada: Tribes: Unequal polling access violates voting rights | Associated Press

Tribal leaders in Nevada asked a U.S. judge Wednesday to order the state and two counties to establish satellite polling places on reservations where they say Native Americans are being denied an equal opportunity to vote in the November elections. Two Paiute tribes filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Reno accusing Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske and Washoe and Mineral counties of discriminating by illegally refusing tribe members voting access afforded to people in wealthier, mostly white neighborhoods. Members of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe living in Washoe County say they must travel 96 miles roundtrip to register to vote or to cast ballots in person in Sparks.

Nevada: Native American tribes to sue Nevada over voter disenfranchisement | Reno Gazette Journal

A pair of Native American tribes are planning to file a federal lawsuit on Tuesday against the state of Nevada after being denied voter registration sites and polling places on tribal lands in Washoe and Mineral counties. The basis of the suit is voter disenfranchisement of a protected class under the Civil Rights Act. The plaintiffs — the Pyramid Lake Paiutes and the Walker River Paiutes — argue that a lack of access to voter registration and polling places on the reservation has hampered Native American turnout. Native American registration and turnout historically is low, mainly due to access and other barriers, according to Bret Healy, a consultant for the Native American advocacy group Four Directions who is overseeing the lawsuit. He’s handled similar requests in other states and said that if they are granted, turnout tends to increase dramatically, sometimes as much as 130 percent. “It’s because there’s more obstacles,” Healy said. “It’s not an equal access to the ballot box.”

Alaska: Newly enacted Native language voting provisions rolled out at polls in August primary | Alaska Dispatch News

Before choosing a primary ballot at a polling place set up at the Manokotak City Office this week, Mike Toyukak glanced at two sample ballots offering Yup’ik translations of the English ballots available for voters to chose from. From signing for his ballot to depositing it into the ballot box, it only took Toyukak a few minutes to vote. But the scenario he encountered — the Yup’ik language sample ballots, an interpreter on hand had he needed one, and even a Yup’ik glossary of terms available for the poll workers to refer to — were years in the making. And Toyukak was at the heart of the change. His first language was Yup’ik. And for years, when he went to vote he was confronted with an English ballot, and difficulty understanding all the nuances it contained. Although he knows some English, he also knew that others were having an even more difficult time with the language.

National: Native Americans still fighting for voting equality | News21

Terry Whitehat remembers gathering at the community hall in Navajo Mountain each election day, where Navajo Nation members in this remote Utah community would cast their ballots. The tribal members would catch up with friends and family and eat food under the cottonwood trees in the parking lot. So when Whitehat, a social worker who has lived most of his life on the reservation, received a ballot in the mail for the 2014 elections, he said it caught him off guard. The county began conducting elections by mail in 2014. Members of the Navajo Nation who live in the area could no longer physically vote in the village. If they wanted to vote in person, they would have to drive to the only remaining polling place at the county seat in Monticello, a 400-mile round trip from Navajo Mountain. Whitehat and a half-dozen other Navajo community members, along with the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, sued the county. They claimed the move to a mail-only election disenfranchised Native Americans, especially those who don’t read or speak English and had limited access to mail. They said it also violated the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment.

National: Native Americans plan to make history in the US election | BBC

More Native Americans are participating in the 2016 election than ever before. Eight indigenous candidates are running for Congress, up from two in 2014. Over 90 are running for state legislatures, again exceeding previous years. Hillary Clinton ran campaign ads in Navajo and met with tribal leaders in Iowa, Washington, Arizona and California during the presidential primaries. Bernie Sanders met with 90 leaders in total, a political record. “This is the best campaign ever in Indian Country,” says Nicole Willis, member of the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla and former advisor to Bernie Sanders. “There’s no question about that.” Native Americans, who make up approximately 1.7% of the US population, are unlikely to determine a presidential election. But they do play an important role in shaping local politics and swinging votes for seats in Congress. But why is 2016 proving to be such a vibrant year for indigenous politics?

North Dakota: North Dakota becomes latest state to have voter ID ‘burden’ blocked | The Guardian

North Dakota on Monday became the latest state to have its voter identification law blocked by a federal court, adding to a string of recent rulings across the US on the grounds that such measures disenfranchise poor and minority voters. North Dakota joined North Carolina and Wisconsin, where voter-ID restrictions were struck down by federal courts on Friday, victories for advocates who claim the measures are an attempt to suppress voters who tend to cast ballots for Democrats. Seven Native American voters filed a federal law suit against North Dakota claiming measures passed by the Republican-led legislature in 2013 and 2015 are unconstitutional and violate the US Voting Rights Act. The laws added restrictions to the types of identification voters can use at polling places and banned “fail-safe” provisions allowing them to vote without the required identification in certain circumstances.

North Dakota: Attorney for Native Americans challenging voter ID law says Texas ruling ‘enhances our case’ | INFORUM

An attorney for Native Americans fighting recent changes to North Dakota’s voter identification laws said Thursday a federal appeals court ruling this week declaring a similar Texas law to be discriminatory “certainly enhances our case.” Seven members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa filed a federal lawsuit in January against North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger, arguing that voter ID requirements passed by the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature in 2013 and 2015 are unconstitutional and “disproportionately burden and disenfranchise” tribal members. One of their attorneys, Tom Dickson of Bismarck, was encouraged by Wednesday’s 9-6 ruling by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which found a Texas law requiring voters to show a government-issued ID is discriminatory and violates the U.S. Voting Rights Act.

Utah: Judge denies motions to throw out claims in Navajo voting suit | The Salt Lake Tribune

A federal judge has denied motions to throw out some claims in a lawsuit that alleges vote-by-mail procedures adopted by San Juan County hinder the ability of Navajo citizens to participate in elections on equal terms with white citizens. U.S. District Judge Jill Parrish on Monday rejected defendants’ arguments that claims in the suit against San Juan County commissioners in their official capacity are redundant and should be dismissed because the county is also a named defendant. Two other motions, one to dismiss claims brought by the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission and the other to throw out claims brought by one of the seven tribal members who are plaintiffs, also were denied.

North Dakota: Group asks judge to block ND Voter ID law | KFGO

A federal judge has been asked to temporarily block the enforcement of North Dakota’s Voter Identification Law. The request was filed by attorneys who represent members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Earlier this year, they filed a lawsuit that claims North Dakota’s voter ID requirements ”disproportionately burden and disenfranchise Native Americans.” Court documents say an injunction would restore the right to cast ballots by signing an affidavit, or by a poll worker’s personal knowledge of a voter’s eligibility.

Utah: How a Utah county silenced Native American voters — and how Navajos are fighting back | High Country News

To understand why Wilfred Jones wanted an ambulance, you have to understand where he lives. San Juan County, in southeastern Utah, is nearly as big as New Jersey but is home to fewer than 15,000 people. The lower third is part of the Navajo Nation and is almost entirely Ute and Navajo. The upper two-thirds are white and predominantly Mormon. Jones, a 61-year-old grandfather with jet-black hair and a diamond stud in each ear, lives in the lower third, five miles south of the blink-and-you-miss-it town of Montezuma Creek. It’s rough, rocky country, where bullet holes riddle the road signs and lonely pumpjacks ply oil from the earth. The nearest services are in Blanding, some 40 miles north. Sixteen years ago, when Jones joined the board of the Utah Navajo Health System, he realized his neighbors were dying because the closest ambulances — the county’s, in Blanding, and the tribe’s, in Kayenta, Arizona — were an hour away “on a good day.” So Jones asked the county commission if one of San Juan’s ambulances could be housed in a garage in Montezuma Creek. From there, it would take half the time to rush an elder suffering a heart attack to medical care.

Montana: Costs of Indian voting rights legal counsel released | Great Falls Tribune

Money spent by counties defending a 2012 lawsuit on Indian voting rights could have gone toward setting up satellite voting and alternative voting areas on reservations for years, Indian voting activists said. Blaine County paid $119,071 and Rosebud County paid $116,000 for outside legal counsel in the 2012 Wandering Medicine lawsuit, which was settled in 2014, a figure that could reach about $460,000 when combined with Bighorn County, which was also involved in the lawsuit, and the $100,000 paid to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, activists said. However, attorneys involved in the litigation say that is not the case. The $119,071 figure was released in a May 13 public records request to William “Snuffy” Main, a member of the Gros Ventre Tribe on the Fort Belknap Reservation, said attorney Sara Frankenstein of the South Dakota law firm of Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson & Ashmore, who represented Blaine County in the lawsuit.

Montana: More satellite voting offices, more American Indians seeking office this election season | Billings Gazette

If American Indian candidates win all 11 of the seats in the Montana Legislature they are running for this fall, the percentage of Natives in the session would for the first time be representative of the population in the state. American Indians make up 7.4 percent of Montanans but have historically been underrepresented in the Legislature. In the 2015 session, there were eight American Indian legislators, three in the Senate and five in the House, for 5.3 percent of the 150 members. If Indians win all the seats they’re running for this year, that would come to 8 percent, including a state senator whose seat isn’t up for election this year, to make 12 total. … The geography and demographics of their campaigns creates a unique situation, they say. As candidates they talk about advocating for Native issues but also don’t want to be defined strictly by the color of their skin.

National: Native Americans move to frontlines in battle over voting rights | Reuters

Elvis Norquay, a member of the Chippewa Indian tribe, has lived most of his 58 years on North Dakota’s remote Turtle Mountain reservation and says he’s never had a problem voting. That was before 2014, when he hitched a ride with a friend to cast a ballot in local and congressional elections and was turned away. Embarrassed, he asked why he couldn’t vote. He was told he lacked proper ID under new state requirements. He has no phone, no current driver’s license and his tribal ID lacks a street address. “When we left, my friend said, ‘that’s not right’,” said Norquay, who has lived on disability since 2002 in a rural county near the Canadian border.

Alaska: Lost in translation: The difficult but necessary process of creating indigenous language ballots | KTOO

The state’s Division of Elections is required to translate ballots and create an elections glossary in six dialects of Yup’ik and also Gwich’in. Those are the terms of a lawsuit settled last year by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott. But that process isn’t easy. Think about these words — “candidates for elected office are running for a seat.” What image pops in your head? Retired Yup’ik professor Oscar Alexie says not a political event. “I’m thinking of people like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump and all those guys at the race line waiting for someone to say ‘Go!’” And whoever gets to the chair first is the boss, Alexie said.

Alaska: Challenges and joys of crafting a Yu’pik ballot | Alaska Public Media

The state’s Division of Elections is required to translate ballots and create an elections glossary in six dialects of Yu’pik and also Gwich’in. Those are the terms of a lawsuit settled last year by Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott. But as Alaska Public Media’s Anne Hillman learned – that process isn’t easy. Think about these words – candidates for elected office are running for a seat. What image pops in your head? Retired Yup’ik professor Oscar Alexie says not a political event. “I’m thinking of people like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump and all those guys at the race line waiting for someone to say ‘Go!’” And whomever gets to the chair first is the boss, Alexie said. Alexie is part of the eight-person team that’s trying to translate election materials into Yup’ik. He said it’s not easy because the words need to mean something in Yup’ik, not just be literal translations from the English. So one word in English – like candidate – ends up being a phrase in Yup’ik. But technical ballot language in English is dense. Something like “candidate statement” isn’t straightforward.

Utah: San Juan county defends mail-in voting against Navajo lawsuit | Deseret News

A Utah county is crying foul over a lawsuit filed by members of the Navajo Nation who say a move to hold elections only by mail disenfranchises people who live on remote parts of the reservation where mail service is unreliable. San Juan County countered in a recent court filing that the Navajos fabricated the claim in an attempt to control local politics. The county said voter participation actually increased in 2014, in part because the mail-in voting allowed Navajos who work out of town or go away to college or the military to cast ballots. “Why would you want to do away with vote-by-mail when it allows more people to vote?” asked lawyer Jesse Trentadue, who represents the county. County officials also said the U.S. Department of Justice reviewed and signed off on the voting procedures and that improvements are being made for this year’s election.

Montana: Fort Belknap Challenging Montana for Voting Rights | ICTMN

The Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana is considering taking legal action against Blaine County and the Secretary of State of Montana for failing to provide equal access to the right to vote for tribal members, according to the tribe’s president. Fort Belknap Indian Community President Mark Azure said the tribe has retained the services of Timothy Purdon and Brendan Johnson of Robins Kaplan – the former attorneys general of North Dakota and South Dakota, respectively – and Bryan Sells, who was previously working in civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice before starting his own law practice. “We have made multiple requests of Blaine County officials for equal access to in-person late registration and absentee balloting on the Fort Belknap Reservation going back to August 2014,” Azure said.

Arizona: Native Americans Struggle To Overcome Barriers Ahead Of Arizona Elections | International Business Times

The Navajo Nation reservation, the largest concentrated population of American Indians in the United States, is tucked into Arizona’s northwest corner. Stretching across 27,000 square miles of mesas, shrubs and sand, the reservation is largely rural, often without internet access, paved roads or street signs. Employment and education rates are far below the national average, and very few people own vehicles. If residents on the reservation ever need to drive to their county seat — say, to register to vote or to cast an early-voting ballot — the journey could easily take them four hours. Ahead of Arizona’s primary on Tuesday, Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have sought to reach out to Native communities and mention Native issues on the campaign trail. This year marks the first presidential election since the Supreme Court in 2013 struck down the key provision of the Voting Rights Act that required states with a history of voting discrimination to get pre-approval for new voting laws. While much of the national conversation has been focused on Southern states and laws affecting African-American and Hispanic voters, Native Americans in places like Arizona also are affected by policies that discourage them from voting, which have resulted in some of the lowest voter participation rates of any demographic group in the country.

National: Native American Groups Defend Their Right to Vote| VoA News

When Americans go to the polls this November to elect the next U.S. president, Native American groups worry that many of their members will be turned away from the ballot box. Native Americans won U.S. citizenship more than 90 years ago. Even so, many states denied them — as they did African Americans — the right to vote, subjecting them to poll taxes, literacy tests, harassment and intimidation. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act (VRA), banning such discriminatory practices and giving the federal government the authority to monitor elections to ensure they are fair. In 2013, however, the Supreme Court defeated a key provision in the VRA. As a result, certain states with a history of racial discrimination are no longer required to get pre-clearance from the Federal government before they can make changes to election systems.

Utah: Return to Sender: Navajo Voters Reject Mail-in Voting | In These Times

A high-powered coalition of attorneys has filed a federal voting-rights lawsuit against San Juan County, Utah. They’ve done so on behalf of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission (NNHRC) and individual Navajo voters living in the county, which overlaps their reservation. The coalition includes The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, founded at the request of President Kennedy, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Utah and international law firm DLA Piper. The lawsuit alleges that San Juan County’s 2014 switch to mail-in elections makes it hard for non-English-speaking Navajos to vote because they can’t read the English-only ballet. Further, the change is predicated on the reservation’s unreliable postal system. If a voter doesn’t receive or understand a ballot, the option of casting one in person in the largely white northern part of the county—which has the only polling place left—is a difficult and costly trek for tribal members, who mostly live at great distances from it. These unequal burdens violate the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution, says the complaint, Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission v. San Juan County et al.

Montana: Group calls Indian voting proposals ‘unequal’ | Great Falls Tribune

An Indian advocacy organization has told Secretary of State Linda McCulloch that the counties that have submitted proposals for Indian voting satellite offices have proposed plans that offer unequal access. It’s also noted that none of the counties is providing Election Day voter registration, which denies tribal residents equal access to the ballot box. In October, McCulloch issued a directive stating Montana counties must establish satellite voting offices for in-person absentee voting and later-voter registration for the 2016 general election.

Utah: San Juan County sued for violating Voting Rights Act | The Salt Lake Tribune

During the last election, Peggy Phillips would have had to drive four hours, round-trip, from her home on the Navajo reservation to the predominantly white city of Monticello to cast her vote in person. That’s because San Juan County had closed all of its polling places and switched to a mail-only voting system ahead of the 2014 general election. But Phillips never received her ballot in the mail in time. Even if she had, she isn’t comfortable voting in English and would have needed help from a translator, since there are usually words on the ballot she doesn’t understand, according to a federal lawsuit she has joined against the county for violating the Voting Rights Act. Phillips was unable to vote that year. Now, she’s one of seven people, along with the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, suing San Juan County for violating the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting. Their lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court of Utah, claiming that the new voting system “unreasonably hindered” Navajo citizens’ ability to vote on equal terms with white voters. If left unchanged, “these practices will continue to do so in the 2016 election cycle and beyond,” the lawsuit reads.

Montana: Report details challenges facing Indian voters | Great Falls Tribune

Conditions such as distance, health, weather, income and a history of discrimination in voting are some of the reasons why satellite offices on American Indian reservations would help with late registration and in-person absentee voting, according to a recent study prepared for two Indian voting rights groups. The 47-page study, “An analysis of factors that result in vote denial for American Indian voters living on reservations in Montana,” has been forwarded to Secretary of State Linda McCulloch by Four Directions and the Indian People’s Actions. The report was commissioned shortly after McCulloch issued a directive Oct. 19 that Montana counties must establish satellite voting offices for in-person absentee voting and later-voter registration for the 2016 general election. Bret Healy, a consultant with Four Directions, a South Dakota-based Indian voting rights organization, said the report is a comprehensive look at the reservations and encouraged counties to read it.