The Right to Vote Yet Not Being Able to

Written by: Jazmine Cuevas

             Every single person that lives in the United States has the right to vote in any election. The native American community is having a difficult time with this particular matter. Native Americans in certain parts of the United States were not being allowed to vote because of two main points. The first main reason they were not allowed to vote is the lack of an address at their home. Groups such as the Navajo Nation are unable to vote because they do not have a physical address to be able to vote as well as to receive any mail corresponding to voting.  “Until last month, you couldn’t find their home using a traditional address. Instead, the directions went like this; “ Turn off U.S Highway 191 between mile markers 1 and 2. It’s a blue house with a tan roof.” (Pewtrust.orf, Vasilogambros). Without an address government worker are unable to assign precincts for these homes which are needed to see where their vote/ballot would be turned in. Some states allow people to vote using the approximate location to their home however, some states have stricter laws such as the state of North Dakota. In 2018 the Supreme Court of the United States did not block a law in the state that required voters to have an id with an exact address not allowing for Po boxes which some tribe members have. This caused a commotion because they were now forced to figure out how they could vote considering their homes do not have actual address.          

 According to the Pew Trust, there about 50,000 homes and businesses within the Navajo Nation that do not have an actual address. According to the spl center, as many as one million Native Americans are eligible to vote however, they are unregistered. Without them being able to vote they are not able to express themselves and get represented as they should which in turn be detrimental to them when it comes to laws involving them. In order to  resolve this issue, google turned up to help create addresses for the small towns. The system is being tried with the southeastern Utah residents of the Navajo Tribe. With the help of google certain businesses in the Utah area now have addresses such as the Recapture Lodge.  We might think that It is simple to give an address, but it is more complex than that. The Navajo Nation Addressing Authority is tasked with working to give businesses and homes addresses in the Navajo Tribe. The Navajo Nation Addressing Authority is very understaffed and have to work with local politicians to be able to name a street. “ When organizers for the Salt Lake City-based nonprofit Rural Utah Project set out to register 1,600 new voters from the Navajo Nation in the runup to the 2018 midterm elections, staff soon realized what they were up against: One-fifth of Navajo voters in the county were filed in the wrong precinct, which meant they sometimes voted in the wrong school board races. At least 70% of Navajo voters in the county, the project found, were filed under P.O. boxes, while the rest were filed using vague descriptions of their home locations.”

            It is important to make sure that everybody is able to vote because it affect their everyday live. Navajo tribe members not only need to be able to vote in presidential election, but they need to be able to vote for a mayor as well as governor. The most important vote, however, might be when voting for school board and school representation. This vote is a major one because their kids are the ones who are having to attend the schools and they need to make sure that their kids are represented even if they are considered a minority in the area. Voting also allows for new school boundaries which can affect where the Navajo Tribe students attend school. By voting and being allowed to vote they are involved in their country.

Sources:
“For Some Native Americans, No Home Address Might Mean No Voting.” The Pew Charitable Trusts, www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2019/10/04/for-some-native-americans-no-home-address-might-mean-no-voting.

“Weekend Read: The Struggle for Native American Voting Rights.” Southern Poverty Law Center, 23 Nov. 2019, www.splcenter.org/news/2019/11/23/weekend-read-struggle-native-american-voting-rights.