North Dakota: Motion to dismiss voter ID lawsuit filed | Bismarck Tribune

The North Dakota Secretary of State’s office filed a motion on Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by seven members of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa over what they call illegal state voter identification laws. In the lawsuit filed Jan. 21 in US. District Court for the State of North Dakota against Secretary of State Al Jaeger, tribal members allege that the state’s voter ID laws are unconstitutional as they force a disproportionate burden against Native Americans. Some tribal members can’t afford an ID and those who have paid for one are essentially having to pay to vote, according to the lawsuit.

Montana: McCulloch announces satellite voting offices on reservations | Great Falls Tribune

Secretary of State Linda McCulloch on Monday announced the establishment of five satellite election offices with the potential of more on Indian reservations in Montana for the 2016 elections. This follows a directive issued by McCulloch in October, ordering counties to provide satellite offices to ensure compliance with the Federal Voting Rights Act. Satellite offices offer services that are otherwise only available to voters at the county headquarters, namely late registration and in-person absentee voting, which are available in the 29 days preceding the election, officials said.

South Dakota: End-Run on Native Rights—Will It Work? | ICTMN

A South Dakota county fighting the voting-rights lawsuit Poor Bear v. Jackson County has asked the court to dismiss it. The November 13 request followed Jackson County striking a deal with South Dakota’s secretary of state and top elections official, Shantel Krebs. The motion to dismiss also followed a missed early-November court deadline, when the county failed to submit an expert report supporting its election procedures. In the agreement with Secretary Krebs, Jackson County consented to spending long-allotted funding to open a satellite registration and absentee-voting office for the next four federal elections in Wanblee, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Jackson County handles elections in this portion of Pine Ridge but has refused to access Help America Vote Act (HAVA) money for a full-service polling place.

Hawaii: Federal court hearing focuses on Native Hawaiian election | Associated Press

A federal court hearing is set over a lawsuit by people who want to put a stop to an election process that’s under way for Native Hawaiians. The lawsuit, filed in August, says it’s unconstitutional for the state to be involved in a race-based election. The state argues in court documents that while it had a role in compiling a roll of Native Hawaiians eligible to participate, it’s not involved in next month’s vote to elect delegates for a convention to determine self-governance for Native Hawaiians. Tuesday’s hearing is focused on the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. Plaintiffs want the judge to limit voter registration activities or stop the election altogether.

Montana: Counties to work with tribal governments on voting access | Billings Gazette

Montana’s secretary of state is directing all counties with American Indian reservations to work with tribal governments to establish satellite election offices if they are required under the Federal Voting Rights Act, and if the tribal governments request them. Most reservations have local polling places for Election Day, but Linda McCulloch says satellite offices would also offer late voter registration and in-person absentee voting in the 29 days prior to the election. A settlement in a 2012 federal lawsuit won the right to open satellite offices on the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap reservations. An office was opened on the Crow Reservation for the 2014 elections, but the others missed a Jan. 31, 2014, deadline to notify election officials whether they wanted the offices.

Montana: McCulloch orders counties establish satellite voting offices | Great Falls Tribune

Secretary of State Linda McCulloch has directed counties that include reservations to establish satellite election offices, but tribal activists say she’s left a big loophole. McCulloch said she connected with tribal leaders and county election officials during the past three weeks and incorporated their feedback into her directive. She asked them to describe the needs of Indian voters and logistics of establishing the satellite offices. “The success of these election offices on reservations will depend upon cooperation between the counties and tribes, and from my conversations with both tribal leaders and election administrators, I am confident that the collaboration will be successful and that voting access will be increased where it is needed,” she said.

Alaska: Historic Native Voting Rights Win in Alaska | ICTMN

The Native American Rights Fund (NARF) and Alaska have jointly announced an agreement that requires the state to provide translation of election materials and ballots into Gwich’in and several Yup’ik dialects. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason, who presided over the lawsuit that resulted in the settlement, also ordered increased bilingual training for election workers, expanded collaboration with Native language experts and tribal councils, meaningful outreach to voters, and additional help for those with limited English-language proficiency. Alaska Lieutenant Governor Byron Mallott, who is of Tlingit heritage, called the agreement “historic.” He said it “will strengthen our election process, so that voters can have the opportunity to understand fully all voting information before they vote.”

Voting Blogs: Distance as Discrimination: Native Voting Rights in Rural Montana Litigated in Wandering Medicine v. McCulloch | The State of Elections

The seven Indian reservations that intersect with Montana’s massive counties face significant problems, including poverty, domestic violence, and obstacles to education. Native electoral representation, a tool essential for fixing these issues, is threatened by the thinly populated, hundred-mile distances between remote towns that stretch on bad roads through wild terrain. Distance motivated members of three tribes to file suit in U.S. District Court in Billings, Montana, in 2012. In their complaint, rural plaintiffs from the Fort Belknap, Crow, and Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservations alleged that three counties’ failure to create satellite offices allowing late registration and in-person absentee voting closer to Native population centers was unlawful discrimination under § 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Without satellite offices, plaintiffs argued, voting tribal members were forced to travel hundreds of miles round trip to the county seat, which constituted effective denial of the right to vote. Plaintiffs filed twenty-seven days before the 2012 general election, and requested a preliminary injunction requiring the counties to open satellite offices.

Montana: Secretary of state discusses tribal letter on voting | Great Falls Tribune

The secretary of state on Monday said she would review a letter from the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council who are pressing her to establish satellite voting offices for Native Americans in 10 Montana counties. In a meeting with William “Snuffy” Main, Linda McCulloch said she is a “fan” of satellite offices and voting rights but could not give a definitive answer to the requests made in the letter as it had been in her possession less 24 hours. She said she was looking at the possibility of a directive but could not elaborate as to what the directive would say. Earlier this month, The Rocky Mountain Tribal leaders called on her to “issue a directive to Montana counties that have American Indian Reservations within their boundaries telling the counties that they must establish satellite voting offices for in-person absentee voting and later voter registration on those Indian Reservations within their boundaries for the 2016 general election. “

Montana: Tribal leaders demand satellite voting offices | Great Falls Tribune

The Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council is pressing Secretary of State Linda McCulloch to establish satellite voting offices for Native Americans in 10 Montana counties. A letter from the council is on its way to McCulloch, calling on her to “issue a directive to Montana counties that have American Indian Reservations within their boundaries telling the counties that they must establish satellite voting offices for in-person absentee voting and later voter registration on those Indian Reservations within their boundaries for the upcoming 2016 general election for the full 30 day late registration and absentee voting period, including election day.”

Alaska: Parties reach settlement in Alaska Native voting-rights case | Associated Press

A settlement has been reached between the state and Alaska Native plaintiffs who sued in federal court over the translation of voting materials for voters with limited English proficiency. The proposed settlement filed Tuesday calls for the Alaska lieutenant governor’s office to hire a full-time employee to administer language assistance. Another significant provision in the agreement calls for the official state election pamphlet to include translations, plaintiffs’ attorney Natalie Landreth with the Native American Rights Funds said Thursday. It took the two sides about nine months to work out a settlement, she said. Landreth read a brief letter from one of the plaintiffs, Mike Toyukak of the village of Manokotak, thanking officials for working on resolving the case. “This is really a big deal for us, and we’re very happy that those who did not understand before will now be able to understand the voting ballots,” Landreth quoted Toyukak as writing.

Utah: Navajo official expresses mail in ballot concerns | San Juan Record

Members of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission (NNHRC) attended the September 1 meeting of the San Juan County Commission to express concern about voting rights in San Juan County. Leonard Gorman, the Executive Director of the NNHRC and Lauren Benally, a policy analyst, said they are concerned about the county policy to hold elections by mail-in only ballot. Gorman said it was too late to respond to the new policy by the time they became aware of the procedure last year. And, he added, now the primary election for 2015 has been held in the same manner. Gorman said he is concerned that the policy can be used as a way to screen voters. He backed up this claim by saying he had polled the post office on the reservation and was told that a lot of ballots were thrown away in the garbage at the post office.

South Dakota: Absentee ballot lawsuit could cost Minnehaha County taxpayers | KSFY

A group of Native Americans brought forth a lawsuit to make absentee voting more accessible for some in Jackson County. Minnehaha County, like many other counties across the state, pays into an insurance fund in case it gets sued and needs to pay up. Some say the Jackson County lawsuit could cost one of the fund’s largest contributors, which is Minnehaha County. Casting an absentee ballot in person on the Pine Ridge reservation requires voters to go the distance. Up to 30 miles for some. It’s why a group called Four Directions is suing Jackson County to open another voting center closer to home. Four Directions consultant Brett Healy said “it makes it equal for the citizens who live on the Pine Ridge indian reservation, who don’t have perhaps the same level of resources that many of us come to expect.”

South Dakota: Voting rights case enters costly phase | The Argus Leader

Depositions were under way last week in a voting rights case that could indirectly cost taxpayers in Sioux Falls and other South Dakota communities hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. Jackson County was sued last year by four Native Americans after the county refused to establish an in-person absentee polling place in Wanblee. County officials last year argued they didn’t have the money to establish an absentee polling place in both Wanblee, which is 96 percent Indian, along with an existing polling place at the county seat in Kadoka, which is 95 percent white. But the money argument ceased to exist after the state agreed to make federal Help America Vote Act funds available for counties to establish satellite polling places for federal elections. The funds are available for counties with large impoverished populations that live farther away than other residents from county seats or other satellite polling places.

Editorials: Why should some Native Americans have to drive 163 miles to vote? | Natalie Landreth/The Guardian

Imagine if, in the 2016 elections, you had to drive 104 miles (167 km) to your nearest polling station, like National Congress of American Indians research found those people living in the Duck Valley Reservation in Nevada do, or 163 miles (262 km), like residents of the Goshute Reservation in Utah do. Or imagine if you had to take a plane flight to the nearest polling place because you cannot get to it by road, which was the case for several Native communities in 2008, when the state of Alaska attempted a “district realignment” to eliminate polling places in their villages. That’s just half the trip. In those circumstances, can you really be said to be enjoying full voting rights? Consider, too, that many reservations do not have access to early voting, so they will have just one day on which to make that astonishingly long journey. You can imagine the line at that polling place: either it will be very long because everyone is forced to go on that same day, or very short because not many people could afford an entire day off work to vote – that is if they even have a car and a driver’s license.

South Dakota: Federal judge refuses to dismiss Jackson County voting rights case involving tribal members | Associated Press

A voting rights lawsuit filed last year by four Oglala Sioux tribal members against Jackson County will be allowed to proceed following a ruling by a federal judge. County officials had asked U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier to dismiss the lawsuit, but she has denied the motion. Schreier determined the tribal members have provided enough information to support their allegations.

South Dakota: Court Says Sioux Voting Rights Suit Will Proceed | Courthouse News Service

A lawsuit alleging that Jackson County has impaired Native Americans’ right to vote on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota will move forward, a federal judge ruled on May 1. Plaintiff Thomas Poor Bear, Vice President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, filed the lawsuit in September 2014, alleging that Jackson County’s refusal to open a satellite voter registration office on the reservation amounted to discrimination against Native American voters, many of whom did not have transportation to the county seat for voting. The defendants – Jackson County, County Auditor Vicki Wilson, and County Commissioners Glen Bennett, Larry Denke, Larry Johnston, Jim Stillwell and Ron Twiss – responded by filing a motion to dismiss, arguing “the complaint contains no facts showing that the plaintiffs were unable to vote absentee or vote by regular ballot.”

New Mexico: Native voting pact eased poll access, but turnout down | Albuquerque Journal

Twenty-five years ago today, Sandoval County officials responded to a federal lawsuit filed to make it easier for Native American voters to understand and cast their ballots, setting in motion a drawn-out and sometimes contentious relationship to bring the county into compliance with the Voting Rights Act. Though increasing voter turnout was not an explicit goal of the county’s Native American Voting Rights Program, which resulted from the lawsuit, the number of voters has decreased in presidential elections and at least stagnated in midterm elections since 2006, according to a Journal review of New Mexico Secretary of State’s office data. The 2014 election was the first since 1988 that did not have federal monitors present in any of the precincts.

South Dakota: Obama Administration Intervenes In Native American Voting Rights Lawsuit | ThinkProgress

The U.S. Department of Justice has intervened in a lawsuit accusing a South Dakota county of disenfranchising Native Americans living on the Pine Ridge Reservation, arguing the case should move forward because the issues in question fall under the still-enforced sections of the Voting Rights Act. In the months leading up the November election, Native Voting rights advocates filed a lawsuit against Jackson County, South Dakota accusing it of requiring Native Americans to travel often prohibitively long distances to vote instead of opening a satellite office on the reservation. In response to the litigation, Jackson County opened a satellite center for voter registration and early voting in the town of Wanblee on the reservation, but the legal action continued in order to ensure the voting rights would be maintained for future elections. County officials filed a motion to dismiss the litigation after the November midterm, arguing that Native Americans still have three ways to vote absentee including traveling to the county auditor’s office which is more than 27 miles away from Wanblee. But when the DOJintervened, it said the issues presented in the lawsuit should be considered as violations of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which designates Native Americans as a protected class.

South Dakota: Shannon County name change in Legislature’s lap | Rapid City Journal

In the November general election, voters in Shannon County overwhelmingly approved changing the name to Oglala Lakota County, but the new name cannot go into effect without legislative action. Patrick Weber with the Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s office said it’s unknown when the South Dakota Legislature intends to pass the needed joint resolution to rename Shannon County. The county includes the majority of the land on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It had been named after Peter Shannon, a chief justice of the Dakota Territory Supreme Court who later helped negotiate land deals with the Lakota. Shannon isn’t well thought of among many Native Americans. When the name change is finalized, it will mark the first time in more than 100 years that a South Dakota county has undergone a name change, according to the South Dakota Historical Society.

South Dakota: Native Americans say voting rights are violated | Associated Press

The Wanblee residents argue in the lawsuit that Jackson County is discriminating against Native Americans by not opening a satellite office in their community for voter registration and absentee voting, the Rapid City Journal (http://bit.ly/11aqVOs ) reported Sunday. Oglala Sioux Tribe vice president Thomas Poor Bear is among the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs on Friday filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier to issue a preliminary injunction ordering the county to open a satellite office in Wanblee for the time left before the election. Jackson County auditor Vicki Wilson declined to comment on the details of the lawsuit. Meanwhile, South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant says all of the county’s residents have the same access to voter registration and absentee voting as every South Dakotan. “We are 100 percent equal across the state,” Gant said. “Every South Dakota county has at least one location within their county borders where people can absentee vote face-to-face.”

Alaska: Judge orders state to add language help for voters in Alaska villages | Alaska Dispatch

A federal judge directed Alaska election officials on Monday to comply with the federal Voting Rights Act by expanding their language outreach to Yup’ik- and Gwich’in-speaking villagers for the November election U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason told state officials they must provide written translations of most of the important election materials they give to English-speaking voters, including candidate statements in the official election pamphlet mailed to every voter in Alaska. She also directed them to increase six-fold the number of hours that bilingual outreach workers are paid to help Yup’ik and Gwich’in speakers understand the ballot and their right to vote. She ordered state officials to provide material in Yup’ik dialects when Central Yup’ik would be misunderstood in the Dillingham and Wade Hampton census

Alaska: Attorney’s Respond to State’s Proposed Translation Plan | Alaska Public Media

Attorneys have responded to the State of Alaska’s proposed plan to address a state Supreme Court order to improve translation of voting materials in Native languages before November 4th Elections. In a 30-page document, Attorneys with the Native American Rights Fund, representing Yup’ik and Gwich’in Alaska Native voters, asked for five main changes before election day. NARF Attorney Natalie Landreth says the most important request is that the state have bilingual help for Native language voters in every community where it’s needed. Voters at the Lower Kuskokwim School District choosing primary election ballots on Tuesday, August 19th, 2014. “You have to have a bilingual person in place in each place in each village in advance of the election and on election day, that’s number one. Number two: you have to have written translations in Yup’ik of the ballot measures, the pro and con statements, the neutral summaries and the complicated pre-election information like what early voting is, how to get registered,” said Landreth.

Montana: State Dodges Voting-Rights Lawsuit, Implements Satellite Services | ICTMN.com

Montana Secretary of State and chief elections officer Linda McCulloch has implemented technology that allows Glacier County to expand satellite election services on the Blackfeet Reservation, which the county overlaps. Using a “ballot on demand” system, reservation residents will be able to go to Browning to late-register and in-person absentee-vote two days per week during the 30 days prior to national elections. Until now, voters have been able to late-register, request a mailed ballot and drop off completed ballots at the office, which also issued license plates and handled other county-government functions. Going forward, they will be able to vote on the spot as well.

Alaska: Native Voting Rights Case Kicks Off | Alaska Public Media

A federal trial is underway to determine whether the State of Alaska does enough to serve voters who speak Native languages. Toyukuk v. Treadwell was brought by two Alaska Native voters, along with two tribal councils. Natalie Landreth, an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, is arguing the case. She says there’s a “huge amount” of voting information available to people who speak English, Spanish, and Tagalog, compared to the amount of materials for speakers of Yup’ik and Gwich’in. Landreth says the disparity amounts to discrimination.

Montana: State to open voting offices on reservations | Associated Press

Montana will open satellite voting offices on the Crow, Northern Cheyenne and Fort Belknap reservations in October as part of a settlement in a federal voting-rights lawsuit. The offices will be open twice week for late registration and for voters to cast absentee ballots for the Nov. 4 general elections. Last year, 12 Indian plaintiffs sued Secretary of State Linda McCulloch and elections officials in Blaine, Rosebud and Big Horn counties. They argued they had to drive long distances to county courthouses — in some instances, a more than 100 miles roundtrip — to register late and vote early in elections.

Editorials: Congress mustn’t leave Alaska out of voting rights act reform | Alaska Dispatch

In an important Alaska voting rights case being tried in U.S. District Court this month, the state has asserted it isn’t required by law to translate all election materials into Native languages and that in general its language program is adequate. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason overruled the state, saying the constitutional right to vote requires Alaska to translate all election materials into Native languages. The Alaska Federation of Natives has long endeavored to protect Alaskans’ right to vote. While the state has been slow to recognize the challenges facing Alaska Native voters, the federal government – including our Alaska Congressional Delegation and the federal Department of Justice – has been quickening its pace.

National: Tribal leaders welcome Holder’s voting access plan | Associated Press

Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday his office will consult with tribes across the country to develop ways to increase voting access for American Indians and Alaska Natives. Holder said the goal is to require state and local election officials to place at least one polling site in a location chosen by tribal governments in parts of the nation that include tribal lands. Barriers to voting, he said, include English-only ballots and inaccessible polling places. In Alaska, for example, the village of Kasigluk is separated into two parts by a river with no bridge. On election day, people on one side have just a few hours to vote before a ballot machine is taken by boat to the other side. Several other Alaska villages have been designated as permanent absentee voting areas, which is something allowed by regulation, according to Gail Fenumia, director of the state Division of Elections.

South Dakota: Testimony reveals Native Americans still face obstacles at the polls | Rapid City Journal

Some people believe that intimidation of minority voters is a concern of the past, but testimony at a public hearing Thursday revealed concerns that Native Americans still face obstacles when it comes to getting to the polls. Rapid City resident Mark Lone Hill spoke during the National Commission on Voting Rights hearing at the Journey Museum about his experience voting in the 2012 general election. “I filled out my ballot and made sure everything was checked out. So I go up to put it in the box, then this lady comes up and says: ‘Hold on, I want to make sure you’re putting that in right,'” Lone Hill said. “I know I had it in right, but she pulls it out, takes out my ballot and looks at it, then she turned it over and looked at it up and down to see who I’m voting for,” he continued. “Then she says, ‘Oh OK, I just wanted to put it in for you.'” Lone Hill said he was the only Native American at the polling station, the Bethel Assembly of God in north Rapid, at the time. This woman did not approach any other voter to check their ballots, he said. At least not until later that evening when his father went to vote at the same place.

Alaska: AFN Asks For Help in Voting-rights Campaign | Alaska Public Media

Alaska’s largest Native organization is challenging a Southeast group to lead the regional campaign to regain federal voting-rights protections. The Alaska Federation of Natives is already campaigning to restore voting protections struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. Speaking at a Native Issues Forum in Juneau, President Julie Kitka asked for regional help. “You have the history in our Native community, helping leading us to getting us to the right to vote,” she said. “We need the full weight of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Sisterhood.”