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Abstract: 

Since the federal government formally gave Native Americans the right to vote in 1924, they have had to fight to use it. Native American voters living on rural reservations often use ballot collection services due to limited access to home mail services and polling places. Yet last year, Montana—home to 12 tribal nations—enacted a law that makes it illegal to pay organizers who collect completed absentee ballots from voters. The law is part of a nationwide surge in voter suppression legislation instigated by state legislators embracing former president Donald Trump’s claims of a “stolen” election. In 2021, states around the country enacted dozens of restrictive voting laws, making vote by mail and early voting more difficult, imposing harsher voter ID requirements, and making faulty voter purges more likely. Indigenous survivors face unique challenges in accessing their right to vote because of the obstacles to access that confront Native Americans generally, as this article explains. The article first appeared in a research report of the Brennan Center for Justice and is being made available to our readers at no charge.

Keywords: Voter Suppression; Native American Voting Rights; Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee

Affiliations:  1: Brennan Center for Justice; 2: Brennan Center for Justice.