Native Americans in North Dakota struggle to protect their right to vote after a court ruling

Native Americans in North Dakota struggle to protect their right to vote after a court ruling https://i0.wp.com/www.eresviral.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Demócratas-luchan-por-los-resultados-la-representación-en-la-primaria-de-Boston.jpg?fit=260%2C36&ssl=1

Native Americans in North Dakota struggle to protect their right to vote after a court ruling











Courtney Yellow Fat, a member of the tribal council of the Sioux tribe of Standing Rock, has lived on a reservation for most of his life, a community that historically has not used street names or addresses and, instead, depends on the mailboxes.



Then, a few years ago, when he made the 90-minute walk to the state capital of Bismarck, to the department of motor vehicles to obtain an updated license, he felt he had no choice but to recover one in the place.



"Sitting on Bull Street, I think," he said of the address he gave for his driver's license issued by the state.



His identification issued by the tribe is correct because he has since obtained a real address for 911 and plans to add that address to his driver's license.



Still, it's a complicated issue for thousands of Native American voters in North Dakota who, because the Supreme Court last week allowed the state to implement its strict voter identification law, now sneak off to make sure they have ID With street address so your votes will count According to studies commissioned by Native American rights groups that sued North Dakota for the new law, approximately 35 percent of that population does not have an acceptable ID with a residential address .





Cheyenne Haslett / ABC News
Courtney Yellow Fat talks about North Dakota's voter identification law at the headquarters of Standing Rock Tribal in Fort Yates, N.D.

However, Yellow Fat and other tribal leaders are optimistic that the decision will galvanize the participation of Native American voters.



"I believe and I hope it has the opposite effect of repression because the people here are so used to fighting uphill battles against the United States government," he said.



The question of whether the votes of Native Americans will be counted is especially relevant in the next partial exams, since, in less than three weeks, Yellow Fat and the natives of the United States will be among the most important groups of the nation in one. choice It is likely to help determine Senate control.



The voters of North Dakota are the most powerful in the country, according to the FiveThirtyEight voters power index. A vote in North Dakota has more influence over which party will control the majority of the Senate than a vote in any other state, a point that is not lost in Yellow Fat.



"After the election of Senator Heitkamp is when a lot of this came up in the legislature. And for us it is clearly a suppression of our votes, "said Yellow Fat.



The ability to count on the ballots of Native American voters is especially important for the candidacy for the re-election of Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp.



She won her first election in 2012 with less than 3,000 votes, thanks in part to Native American voters who voted under less restrictive voting laws. The court's decision makes his already difficult re-election against popular Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer even more difficult than it has already been.





Cheyenne Haslett / ABC News
A sign warns passers-by not to hunt in a buffalo area in the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Fort Yates, N.D.

Native Americans make up 2 percent of the national population, but they account for a larger proportion of the population of North Dakota with just over 5 percent. The state also hosts five reservations, which often vote in large numbers by the Democrats and serve as a part of the Democratic Party's state base.



State Secretary Al Jaeger, the defendant in the voter identification lawsuit, told ABC News that voter suppression is not the intention of his office or voter identification law.



"I can look you in the eyes and I'll tell you that nothing has happened in this office to attack anyone." That's not what I was chosen to do, "said Jaeger." I took an office oath to comply with the laws of the state of North Dakota and I do my best every day to do that. "



Jaeger said his office is totally focused on making voting accessible to anyone who wants to.



"I do not have time to try to figure out how to disenfranchise anyone in the state of North Dakota because all our efforts to make sure that anyone who wants to vote can vote."



Heitkamp opposed Jaeger's opinion in an interview with ABC News after the debate in the Senate on Thursday night. She said that the law by its nature frankly discards Native Americans by requiring a residential address.



"Why would we ever be able to deprive a Native American veteran who only has one PO Box that everyone knows when they enter the voting booth, they know exactly who that person is, they know they are North Dakota residents. we do not have a record in North Dakota because we do not have this problem and anyone who says it is not about depriving Native Americans of rights is not being honest, "the senator said.



Jaeger said the post office requirement was intended for the state to verify that voters living in a given precinct receive a ballot specific to the place where they live and that people who do not actually live in the district must issue the ballots. votes.



"It becomes very difficult if someone arrives with a post office box because we have no way of knowing what ticket they should receive," Jaeger said, giving examples of how election issues vary in different cities throughout the state. "The vote is linked to a residential address, so there are many different ballots."



Although a lower court allied with Native Americans before the state's June primary, the Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit and the Supreme Court have ruled in recent weeks that the state can go forward with its law for its stated purpose, namely, combat electoral fraud.



Electoral fraud, however, is virtually non-existent in North Dakota, and the Secretary of State's office said the number of fraudulent voter caseloads found has been kept in single digits in both the 2012 and the 2016 elections. .



Jaeger, however, said the figures do not mean they can rule out the existence of electoral fraud, citing voters in 2016 who voted without identification and could not be compared to his office, in the weeks after the election, back to home. Address they had written when they voted.



"Your ballot was counted and we can no longer find them. From my position, that is a concern. Because that means that the integrity of the election may have been compromised, "said Jaeger.



The first effort in a voter identification law in North Dakota was approved in 2013, a few months after Heitkamp's victory. A judicial victory by tribal members prevented the law from entering into force for the 2016 elections.



Last year, the Republican legislature worked with the secretary of state's office on a new bill. The bill allowed voters without an ID to show a residential address to vote, but would only count their vote if they could show their address to the election officials within six days of the election.



Tribal activists presented the state legislature with statistics detailing the difficulty of Native Americans to obtain acceptable identification.



The bill was approved with overwhelming support from the Republican majority.





Stephan Gladieu / Getty Images
    A view of Wakpala, one of the eight districts of Standing Rock.

Court documents indicate that the state did not consult with tribal governments on the impact of the bill on Native Americans, even after the tribal members won their 2016 case.



Activists have accused Republican lawmakers and state election officials of erecting barriers to vote for the majority of the Native American Democratic population of the state. The two mostly North Dakota counties supported Heidi Heitkamp with almost 80 percent of the votes when she ran for the first time in 2012.



In a statement this week, leaders of the four largest tribes in North Dakota opposed the bill, calling it "suppressive" and accusing the state of trying to deprive Native American voters of their rights.



"We believe that the requirement of physical, residential property with a street address was intended to deprive Native American voters of rights. "The statement says that, to combat the deprivation of rights of our members, we intend to make sure that our members who lack residential homes can obtain them so they can exercise their right to vote."



"We encourage all tribal people to vote on November 6, even if they do not have qualification identification," the statement added. "We will not be silenced by flagrant attempts to steal our people our voice."



Heitkamp and Cramer addressed the decision on voter identification in their debate on Thursday night.



Heitkamp accused the state legislature of deciding that "there are certain people in North Dakota who do not want to vote," and that the law contradicts the state's values, expressing the hope that the votes of Native Americans count.



Cramer said that North Dakota, as the only state without voter registration, must ensure that voters show they live where they say they do and noted that "the integrity of the ballot box is very valuable."



Jaeger said that it should be the responsibility of the tribes to provide proper qualification identification to citizens on the reservation who have not sought them out.



"I certainly hope that the competent authorities will see that their people have that, since it is essential for everything that is done."



In an interview with ABC News, Mike Faith, president of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, said he expected people to see the court ruling as a challenge that will lead people to the polls.



"With this decision, I think it actually gave people more energy to get out. They want to be challenged for not voting, I think they will face that challenge and I think they go to the polls. That is our point of view, "said the faith.



But others in the reserve are cautious.



Bill Left Hand, who has lived on the reservation most of his life with his five children, and now his children, said he is concerned that people can not vote due to the requirement of the address.



But he expressed his approval of the tribe's efforts to raise awareness of the new law.





Cheyenne Haslett / ABC News
Bill Left Hand, 56, holds a letter from the US Department of Health and Human Services at the tribal headquarters of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation at Fort Yates, N.D.

"The Standing Rock tribe is making every effort to inform people about that and I am also encouraging many people to come out and update their address and come to vote because that is what we need, our voices to be heard." especially, "he said.



Faith and other tribal leaders in North Dakota are coordinating before election day to ensure that Native Americans in the five state reserves can vote. Four Directions, a group defending the voting rights of Native Americans, has presented a proposal agreed by tribal leaders to help residents obtain acceptable forms of identification to present at the polls.



"As long as you provide a name and are in a physical residence, [the state] It will honor a tribal letterhead as an identification for that person to vote, "said OJ Semans, executive director of Four Directions. "We are working with the tribes so that the tribal officials are at the polling places or establishing an office near the polling places so that people can get a tribal letterhead, get their IDs and go to vote."



Semans says his message to the state and people outside of North Dakota is that the tribes will vote.



"It's very simple, in the end, you say: Standing Rock will vote, Spirit Lake will vote, Turtle Mountain will vote, Sisseton-Wahpeton will vote, all tribes are united to ensure that our tribal members can participate in this democratic process."

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