Opinion

Column: Structural racism and Indian voting case in Wyoming

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

"Somebody lied on the way to changing Wyoming law governing the creation of election districts for county commissioners.

The story begins last spring, when U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson ruled in favor of five Native American plaintiffs who challenged Fremont County’s system of electing county commissioners at-large. The plaintiffs successfully argued that the system violates the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting power of Native Americans.

Judge Johnson found that Native Americans, specifically members of the tribes of the Wind River Reservation, have been victimized by historic and continuing racial discrimination in Fremont County. The county’s at-large system of voting denied them access to the institutional power through which they could address this racism.

The county’s initial response to losing the lawsuit was to offer a districting plan with a majority Native American district to elect one commissioner, and an at-large district to elect the other four commissioners. These districts were rejected by Judge Johnson because they “perpetuate the separation, isolation and racial polarization in the county, guaranteeing that the non-Indian majority continues to cancel out the voting strength of the minority.”

Under federal court order, Fremont County then drew five single-member county commissioner districts and held the first elections in three of them in January (the other two commissioners were carried over and will be up for election in 2012).

Meanwhile, Fremont County also appealed the decision – at taxpayer expense – and the matter is now pending before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals."

Get the Story:
Dan Neal: Dealing with structural racism (WyoFile 3/22)

Lawsuit Documents:
Large v. Fremont County (ACLU)