The Pyramid Lake and Walker River Paiute Tribes have filed a complaint in federal court over access to early voting and voter registration. The tribes are suing Nevada Secretary of State Barbara K. Cegavske, Washoe and Mineral Counties and their commissioners, Mineral County Clerk-Treasurer Christopher Nepper, and Washoe County Registrar of Voters, Luanne Cutler.
“It’s about equality and the inequality that we feel that we’re facing,” Vinton Hawley, Chairman of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe said.
Nevada’s early voting runs from October 22 to November 4. Washoe County has 22 early voting locations. While the Pyramid Lake and Walker River tribes have voting locations on Election Day, they don’t have early voting on the reservations. Pyramid Lake Residents have to drive about 45 minutes to the nearest poll and Walker River residents have to drive about 35 miles to vote early in Hawthorne.
“Right now, it’s clearly obvious that we’re not treated the same,” Hawley said. “There are 20-22 in the Reno-Sparks area and then there’s also an early voting site in Incline Village.”
There are five plaintiffs in the lawsuit. They say the lack of access is a violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, The Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Nevada Constitution.
“You cannot restrict the right to vote on the count of race, and when you say that the Indians get two days and the Anglos get 12, that’s not equal,” Bret Healy, Consultant of Four Directions said.
Tribal leaders say they want one early voting location and one voting machine in both Nixon and Schurz. Each location would require three poll workers.
“If we work together and they can be understanding of what we’re looking at, I think it’s very possible to get organized and collaborated beforehand,” Bobby D. Sanchez, Chairman of the Walker River Paiute Tribe said.
The Washoe County Registrar of Voters could not comment on the issue, since it is going through litigation, but she does say it is too close to the election to change anything during this campaign cycle.
Washoe County said in a statement, “In general, the Washoe County Registrar of Voters exercises her discretion in determining the location of polling places by using factors such as cost, voting populations and other logistics. The process of securing Election Day plans and early voting sites begins in January and February of each election year. Securing the voting sites early is an integral and important part of the Registrar’s overall election plan which allows other deadlines for training, printing of election materials and deployment of voting machines to be met. With Election Day fast-approaching, the Registrar’s plan for the General Election remains in place and her decision regarding this matter is final.”
The tribes also say voter registration is a problem on the reservations because they have to drive to another town in order to register in-person and many residents do not have internet access to do it online. They would like to have the ability to register, in-person, on tribal land.
“If we would have that in our own community, it would be such a blessing and it would just really boost the votes, also,” Sanchez said.
Source: KTVN 2 News; 09.07.16
