RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – Fresh off a court victory giving them early voting at Nixon and Schurz reservations, the inter-Tribal Council of Nevada is asking the state of Nevada to provide early voting at nine other places.
The letter asks Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske to add early polling places at the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, the Yerington Paiute Reservation, the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Reservation, three locations in Elko County, and one each in Humboldt, Nye and Clark counties.
The letter says the secretary of state’s office has not taken any effort to investigate the problems faced by tribal voters. Voters from the Duck Valley Reservation in Elko County on the Nevada-Idaho border face a 200-mile round-trip drive to vote early or vote on Election Day; for the Duckwater Shoshone Reservation in central Nevada there is a 275-mile round-trip drive to vote in Tonopah, the letter says.
They ask for a voting site at the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony because tribal members are more comfortable voting on tribal land, the letter said.
The council asks the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office to work with a voting rights consultant group called Four Directions.
On Oct. 7, U.S. District Court Judge Miranda Du ruled that officials in Washoe and Mineral counties have to set up additional in-person early-voting sites and Washoe County has to set up an in-person Election Day polling station in Nixon.
But Du also said Cegavske and the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office are still parties in the lawsuit and that she is responsible for enforcing election law.
The Secretary of State’s Office did not return calls asking for comment.
Source: KOLO 8 News; 10.21.16
