Indianz.Com > News > Arizona Mirror: Native voters continue to face obstacles at the polls
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SCOTUS ruling on citizenship proof for new voters has an outsized impact for Native voters
Tuesday, September 3, 2024
With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that now requires potential voters to provide proof of citizenship with their state-created voter registration forms, Indigenous voting rights advocates want Indigenous people to know that they can still register to vote as tribal citizens.Patty Ferguson-Bohnee said that Indigenous people living in Arizona who are enrolled in a federally recognized tribe can use their tribal identification numbers to prove their citizenship. “As long as a tribal member is an enrolled member of their tribe, they can use that tribal ID number to register on the state form, and that will prove citizenship for purposes of voter registration,” she said, adding that it’s because all Indigenous peoples were declared citizens of the United States in 1924. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
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Now, adding another layer of requirements, Parrish said, will be challenging because her on-the-ground team will need to find ways to accommodate that requirement for the Indigenous peoples they register to vote.She said she is curious if it will simply involve adding additional printers and scanners to their efforts in the field so that they can photocopy the documents needed to send them in with voter registrations. For now, the uncertainty means Parrish and her team are considering briefly suspending their on-the-ground voter registration efforts until they better understand what is happening. “It’s disheartening,” Parrish said, adding that is what voter disenfranchisement is meant to do. “We’re at a crossroads, and we just have to keep pushing forward.”Parrish said she hopes Indigenous voters don’t feel discouraged from participating in the election and to check on their voter registration status to ensure they can vote. “It’s clearly a voter suppression tactic and is why groups like us exist to help our voters navigate and understand,” She said.Ceridwen Cherry, the legal director for voter advocacy group VoteRiders, said there are about 41,000 federal-only voters in Arizona who are allowed to vote on federal races, but not state ones, because they haven’t provided proof of citizenship. “That’s a pretty decent chunk of people who are in this category right now,” Cherry said. “We’re going to be doing outreach to all 41,000 of those voters in Arizona to offer them our services.”
Cherry said her organization partnered on a national study that found that about 21.3 million American citizens of voting age lack ready access to a document proving citizenship, such as a U.S. birth certificate, U.S. passport, naturalization certificate or citizenship certificate.“The survey’s results indicate that requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote would create significant barriers for eligible voters,” the Brennan Center stated in a press release.The survey also found that, of the 21.3 million American citizens lacking ready access to documentary proof of citizenship, at least 3.8 million don’t have these documents at all.“That is what’s really concerning to us is that there are voters who are just going to be entirely disenfranchised from participation,” she added.The survey also showed that 11% of American citizens of color who are voting age are unable to readily access documentary proof of citizenship, compared to 8% of white American citizens.Senator @priya4az said it best: “When Republicans feel like they can’t win, they try to change the rules.”
— Arizona Senate Democrats (@AZSenateDems) August 22, 2024
TODAY: The US Supreme Court ruled that part of the Republican-backed voting law will apply prospectively to new registrations. Arizona Republicans have proudly touted that… pic.twitter.com/0x6gm2Gd7Q
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Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and X.
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