Turn Up Tuesdays to Highlight Marginalization of Native Americans in Voting Process

April 28, 2020

WASHINGTON – The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, with its campaign And Still I Vote and in partnership with the Native American Rights Fund (NARF), will host a Turn Up Tuesdays Facebook Live Event on Tuesday, April 28, at 5:30 p.m. ET. The event will highlight barriers to the ballot Native Americans face and outline practical steps for how officials can protect their vote in the wake of COVID-19. As many states move toward voting by mail, the event will highlight how the failure to put systems in place could leave many tribal communities behind.

As NARF has outlined, many Native Americans do not have mail delivery at their homes, many tribal communities lack broadband access, and some elder Native American voters are not fluent or literate in English. Any move to a vote-by-mail system in response COVID-19 must provide accommodations for tribal communities in order to protect their ability to vote.

In addition to the Facebook Live event, Arizona elections officials, public health experts, and advocacy organizations will hold a press briefing on Tuesday to discuss voting in Native American communities and why the Arizona governor, secretary of state, and legislature must ensure safe and secure elections this fall, including providing every registered voter with their ballot by mail, while preserving meaningful in-person voting options.

Turn Up Tuesdays, a weekly, national call to action, is dedicated to ensuring that the election process in upcoming primaries is safe and effective, and never again encounters the disarray that voters experienced in Wisconsin’s election on April 7. The Turn Up Tuesday Facebook Live will also amplify the call for expanded, safe in-person early voting and absentee voting.

https://www.facebook.com/civilandhumanrights/posts/10156686346666157

Turn Up Tuesday Facebook Live 
Tuesday, April 28 | 5:30 p.m. ET

Participants
Ashley Allison, executive vice president of campaigns and programs, The Leadership Conference
Jacqueline de León, Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund (NARF)
Crystal Echo Hawk, CEO, Illuminative

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

Since 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has provided specialized legal assistance to Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide. NARF has successfully asserted and defended the most important rights of Indians and tribes, in hundreds of major cases, and has achieved significant results in such critical areas as tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, natural resource protection, voting rights, and Indian education. NARF is a non-profit 501c(3) organization that focuses on applying existing laws and treaties to guarantee that national and state governments live up to their legal obligations. Like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter @NDNrights to learn about the latest fights to promote justice and protect Native American rights.