Voting rights organizer O.J. Semans, whose organization Four Directions works to improve voting access for Native Americans, determined that delayed delivery times to the Arizona portion of the Navajo reservation effectively give tribal members about 15 days to return their ballots by mail instead of the 25 days designated by the state.
“Basically vote by mail works for middle class white people and does not work for Native Americans,” Semans said.
Advocates like Semans and Gerald Stiffarm of the Snake Butte Voter Coalition in Montana have fought to improve voting access for Native Americans, who for decades have been restricted by distance, isolation, lack of access to transportation and information, as well as strict voter registration requirements that restrict people without traditional addresses.
In recent years these efforts by activists seemed to be working. A 2012 lawsuit in Montana resulted in counties establishing “satellite” voting offices to serve native tribal lands. That made election participation more accessible for people with travel limitations or who have experienced confrontations with non-natives in the nearby towns, Stiffarm said. “With the satellite office here, the elderly people, the handicapped people, the people who have low self-esteem, they feel comfortable coming to the polling places,” he said.
Source: PBS NewsHour; 10/6/20
