Tribal leaders welcome Holder’s voting access plan

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder
said Monday his office will consult with tribes across the country to
develop ways to increase voting access for American Indians and Alaska
Natives.
Holder said the goal is to require state and local
election officials to place at least one polling site in a location
chosen by tribal governments in parts of the nation that include tribal
lands. Barriers to voting, he said, include English-only ballots and
inaccessible polling places.
In Alaska, for example, the village
of Kasigluk is separated into two parts by a river with no bridge. On
election day, people on one side have just a few hours to vote before a
ballot machine is taken by boat to the other side. Several other Alaska
villages have been designated as permanent absentee voting areas, which
is something allowed by regulation, according to Gail Fenumia, director
of the state Division of Elections.
In Montana, a voting rights
lawsuit is pending from tribal members on the Crow, Northern Cheyenne
and Fort Belknap reservations. They want county officials to set up
satellite voting offices to make up for the long distances they must
travel to reach courthouses for early voting or late registration.
"These
conditions are not only unacceptable, they’re outrageous," Holder said.
"As a nation, we cannot — and we will not — simply stand by as the
voices of Native Americans are shut out of the democratic process."
After
consulting with tribal leaders, his office will seek to work with
Congress on a potential legislative proposal, Holder said.
Associate
Attorney General Tony West discussed the announcement later Monday in
Anchorage, during a speech to the National Congress of American Indians.
Despite
reforms to strengthen voting rights, there also have been setbacks,
West told the crowd. He cited last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in
favor of Shelby County, Alabama.
The decision effectively stripped
the federal government of its most potent tool to stop voting bias — a
requirement in the landmark Voting Rights Act that all or parts of 15
states with a history of discrimination in voting, mainly in the South
but also Alaska, get Washington’s approval before changing the way they
hold elections. Now, changes do not have to be submitted, and it is up
to the U.S. Justice Department or others who sue to prove changes are
discriminatory.
West also pointed to a Justice Department court
filing last week that sided with plaintiffs in a voting rights lawsuit
filed by several Alaska villages. The lawsuit alleges the state has
failed to provide accurate, complete translations of voting materials
into Alaska Native languages.
The Justice Department also
intervened earlier this year in response to a plan by Cibola County, New
Mexico, to eliminate voting-rights coordinators.
Remote geography
and the inability to speak English do not free Americans from the
obligations and responsibilities of citizenship, West said. Neither
should they "impede the rights to which we are all entitled," he said.
American Indian and Alaska Native leaders attending the conference welcomed the announcement.
"I
think anything that involves tribes and tribal authority is extremely
important," said Dr. Ted Mala, director of traditional healing at the
Alaska Native Medical Center and director of tribal relations for an
Anchorage-based tribal health services organization.
He said tribes have had more opportunities for such consultations with the federal government under the
Obama administration.
"We even meet with the president once a year, and it’s a wonderful thing," Mala said.
Carol
Schurz is a councilwoman for the Gila River Indian Community in
Sacaton, Arizona. She said the community organizes its own elections and
consults with state officials on state and federal elections.
Schurz
encourages voter registration and said the Justice Department proposal
would be well-received. She said it could empower indigenous voters "if
we have the opportunity to get all our people engaged."
Schurz
added: "I’m engaged in whatever I need to do as an Indian leader, as a
community leader, so yes, it is important. Everybody has a right to
vote."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also applauded the plan.
"Through
better communication, obstacles to casting a ballot can be identified
and addressed," she said in a written statement. "The right to vote is
fundamental, and all Americans must be able to exercise this right."
___
Associated Press writers Mark Thiessen in Anchorage and Mark Sherman in Washington, D.C., contributed to
this report.

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