Six Navajo voters residing in Apache County have filed suit against Arizona’s secretary of state, asking that the deadline for mail-in ballots be extended due to the difficulty of voting by mail on the reservation.
Plaintiffs Darlene Yazzie, Caroline Begay, Irene Roy, Donna Williams, Leslie Begay and Alfred McRoye state in their suit, filed last Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for Arizona, that the current requirement that votes be received — not postmarked — before 7 p.m. on election day places “unconstitutional burdens on plaintiffs’ right to vote at Navajo Nation during the COVID-19 pandemic and United State Postal Service reorganizational issues.”
The voters were assisted in filing the suit by Four Directions Inc., a national Native American voting rights organization. The plaintiffs note that Oct. 23 is the last day to request a mail-in ballot, which gives a voter 10 days to fill out the ballot and mail it in by election day, Nov. 3.
Source: Navajo Times; 9/3/20
