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.
Du said they’ve proven they’ll suffer irreparable harm if she doesn’t intervene with the election less than five weeks away. “The court finds that the public interest is served by a preliminary injunction,” she wrote in her 20-page ruling issued shortly after 5 p.m.
The legal battle is the latest in a series of similar cases arguing violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in Arizona, Utah, Montana, Alaska and the Dakotas.
… Du denied the request for an injunction in regard to the establishment of on-site voter registration at either reservation. But she ordered polling sites be set up for early voting at both, and for Election Day voting in Nixon on the Pyramid Lake reservation 40 miles northwest of Reno. The Walker River tribe in rural Mineral County already provides for Election Day voting on the reservation in Schurz, where the early-voting option will be added under the judge’s order.
Full Article: US judge sides with Nevada tribes in voting rights case.