Thinking about Elections

NATIVE AMERICAN VOTING RIGHTS THREATENED. The news has gone quiet on the SAVE Act, but it’s still hanging over our heads. It would disenfranchise many in the name of the fiction that it would make elections more secure. Native Americans would be disproportionately harmed by all versions of the SAVE Act. This point has been missing from the discussion and deserves attention.

It’s easy to say that a law is equitable if it applies equally to all people, but this is a fallacy. If it burdens a particular well defined group more heavily than the mainstream, it’s not equitable. That is the case for Native Americans.

Consider that the SAVE Act would require Americans to go in person to an election office during weekday business hours to present their citizenship documents to register to vote. For Native communities in many rural areas, this would require a round trip drive of over 200 miles (many people do not have cars and there is no public transportation) or even getting on a plane. This alone would prevent many from registering to vote. Added to it are other problems.

+ Native American are among the 21 million Americans less likely to have passports or copies of their birth certificates. (Others similarly affected include the elderly, young people, married women who changed their names.)

+ The legislation says Tribal members will be able to use their Tribal ID to register to vote. However, it also requires Tribal IDs to include the ID holder’s place of birth. Tribal IDs, like other forms of government-issued ID do not include birth information. This contradiction creates an impasse.

Since Native Americans were granted citizenship in 1924 they’ve been struggling to exercise their voting rights.

https://narf.org/save-act-hurts-native-voters/