Tristan Ahtone: Democrats can't take Native voters for granted

Tuesday, October 30, 2018  

Democrats are depending on Native voters in North Dakota to help them re-elect Heidi Heitkamp, who is facing an uphill battle to keep her seat in the U.S. Senate.

But where were they when Republican lawmakers were passing new laws that have restricted the voting power of tribal citizens in the state? Tristan Ahtone, the associate editor for tribal affairs at High Country News and president of the Native American Journalists Association, looks closer at the long-running battle in The New York Times:

Ahead of the midterm elections, the state of North Dakota is using one of the most restrictive voter identification laws in the country to engage in that most American of traditions: excluding and discriminating against indigenous people.

Thanks to the state’s Republican Party, all who want to take part in the democratic process must have a residential address on their identification cards. However, many tribal citizens in North Dakota don’t have residential addresses or postal service. There are five federally recognized tribes in the state, with five reservations. More than 31,000 indigenous people live in North Dakota, and around 60 percent of that population lives on reservations. Those tribal citizens are usually issued tribal ID cards by their nations or by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That makes those documents federally recognized, and once issued, they can be used for everything from getting through security at the airport to opening bank accounts. But they can no longer be used to vote.

This is egregious even by the standards of Republicans’ all-out voter suppression war. Native voters in the state typically cast ballots for Democrats, and a quick glance at voting maps shows that they are concentrated in four areas — islands of blue in a sea of red. If those Democrat-leaning areas are overlaid on maps of the state’s reservations, the boundaries align. With the new voter ID law, which will exclude voters in precisely these areas, those blue precincts can now turn red. Magic!

Tristan Ahtone: Democrats, Don’t Take Native American Voters for Granted (The New York Times October 29, 2018)

In North Dakota, Native Americans Try to Turn an ID Law to Their Advantage (The New York Times October 30, 2018)

High Country News: Tribes unite to protect their voting rights (October 30, 2018)
Tribes alarmed after Supreme Court refuses to help Native voters (October 11, 2018)
Native voters ask Supreme Court to intervene ahead of key election (October 3, 2018)
Native voters dealt setback ahead of key Senate election (September 25, 2018)
Native vote at issue as North Dakota faulted for 'discriminatory' law (May 31, 2018)
'She chose oil over Indians': Native voters upset with Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (May 29, 2018)