Suppression of Native American Vote - new report

[diva77]

Last edited Tue Jun 30, 2020, 05:01 PM - Edit history (1)

Native American Voting Rights Report: Obstacles at Every Turn

https://vote.narf.org/obstacles-at-every-turn/

In 2017 and 2018, the Native American Voting Rights Coalition—founded by the Native American Rights Fund—held nine public hearings to better understand how Native Americans are systemically and culturally kept from fully exercising their franchise. More than 120 witnesses testified from dozens of tribes across the country.

The final report, Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters, was released June 4, 2020, and provides detailed evidence that Native people face obstacles at every turn in the electoral process: from registering to vote, to casting votes, to having votes counted. https://vote.narf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/obstacles_at_every_turn.pdf

Some of these findings affect non-Natives as well. Many are particular to the Indian Country experience in 2020. Some were put in place specifically to suppress turnout.

RELATED MATERIALS: (go to link at top of post to get links to items below)

Download a summary of the report’s findings including recommendations for a way forward>>
Download a summary of Native American voter impact>>
Download a summary of obstacles related to registration>>
Download a summary of obstacles related to vote-by-mail>>
Download a summary of obstacles related to casting a ballot>>

Help spread the word! Find out how you can get involved and spread the word with our promotional toolkit ?
https://vote.narf.org/advocacy-actions/

Graphic design for the report provided by Katherine Howell-Kiser.

Strategic communications support provided by Pyramid Communications’ Native-led Indian Country Team.

[diva77]

1. Kick for exposure of voter suppression of Native American vote

[abqtommy]

2. It's good that this is being exposed since in the end suppression affects all voters... United

we stand, divided we fall.

[diva77]

3. Agree 1000%. Thanks for your rec & post. Such an important issue; literally a matter of life and

death as we are seeing before our eyes.

[LiberalArkie]

4. The thing that always bothers me is that it its always "they don't have an address"

I see that the homes have electricity. Doesn't that require an address of some sort for billing.

I see that a lot of the homes have satellite TV. Doesn't that required some sort of address.

I live out in the Ouachita National Forest and we have addresses and mail. We made up addresses and checked with the US Mail and they were not taken and should the locations to the county so they could mop it and add it to 911. It took about a week.

Is their local tribal government not aware of how to set it up?

[diva77]

5. Maybe you can contact Native American Rights Fund and discuss this with them. Here is contact info

303-447-8760
[e-mail]
vote.narf.org

1506 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80302-6296

Thanks for your post.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. They live in areas where the USPS doesn't deliver, so they are served by Post Office Boxes.

And there are definitely places not connected to utilities.

[LiberalArkie]

7. I know. But getting an address is easy. has to be done at the county level.

But it is probably like here with 911 database. We don't what to change our address, we have had it for over 100 years.

But to not have an address so that an ambulance can get to you is crazy. It maybe that the tribal people have never wanted to buy the 911 database and be hooked up.

But to sacrifice the ability to vote because you don't have an address is stupid.. You don't have to be on a mail route. You can have an address and still have mail delivered to General Delivery or a P.O. Box.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. "Getting an address is easy."

Well, sure, if you're not a member of a population that is targeted by systems at every level. I'd encourage you to read up on the issue before you talk about "tribal people" "never wanting 911."

[LiberalArkie]

9. But how do the tribal ambulances get there, How does someone tell the tribal police where to come?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. There are plenty of ways to give directions that have nothing to do with addresses.

Go over Bunker Hill and take the third right.

We're at Jim Olson's old place, past Big Lake.

That trailer your cousin lived in when he was in high school, before he got hurt.

Remember where Annie's place burned? Two driveways beyond that.

[csziggy]

10. Getting an address is NOT easy if the roads have no names - or there are no roads

This article discusses the problems in different states for Native Americans better than I ever could:

For Some Native Americans, No Home Address Might Mean No Voting
Stateline Article
October 4, 2019
By: Matt Vasilogambros

SAN JUAN COUNTY, Utah — At the end of a labyrinth of red dirt roads and surrounded by the rusty cliffs of nearby mesas, Marthleen and Shuan Stephenson live on an isolated desert homestead on the sprawling Navajo Nation.

Until last month, you couldn’t find their home using a traditional address. Instead, the directions went like this: “Turn off U.S. Highway 191 between mile markers 1 and 2. It’s a blue house with a tan roof.”

<SNIP>

The mostly desert-covered reservation, which spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, encompasses more than 27,000 square miles. It will take an unknowable number of years to assign addresses throughout the reservation, said M. C. Baldwin, the rural addressing coordinator at the Navajo Nation Addressing Authority, the tribal office tasked with identifying and addressing homes and businesses there.

Limited by a three-person staff, massive swaths of land, a lack of broadband access and limited funding, his office has set addresses for fewer than 1,000 buildings on the reservation. The obstacles include not just identifying buildings but also jumping over bureaucratic hurdles, such as naming roads through official resolutions and dealing with the local politics of 110 different chapter houses — the governing boards that make up the Navajo Nation.

More: https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/10/04/for-some-native-americans-no-home-address-might-mean-no-voting