Native American Voters Disenfranchised In ND

Last week, Republicans were actively disenfranchising African-American and other minority voters in Georgia in order to “fix” the midterm election.  This week, Native American voters in North Dakota are the target.

Politics
Don’t look now, but the US Supreme Court has voted to uphold a severe Voter ID law in the State of North Dakota.  Under the new law, anyone wishing to vote in any local, state, or federal election is now required to have a state-issued ID with a valid street address.  Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize how problematic that is for a state with a huge Native American population.

In North Dakota, almost all Native American residents live on a reservation.  Or, in other words, there is no house number or street address.  In fact, there is no street at all.  For a state with at least 35% of its population without an acceptable ID listing a residential address, North Dakota will effectively be disenfranchising more than a third of its voting populace.

So, how can a Native American resident of the state cast their vote as they have done for years? Under this new law, they can’t — which is why residents have filed a lawsuit and are using every legal resource at their disposal to repeal the law and reinstate their right to vote.

Courtney Yellow Fat, a tribal council member for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, has lived on a reservation for most of his life in a community which historically has never used street names or addresses, but has instead relied on post office boxes. His tribal issued ID is valid, however, to the State of North Dakota it suddenly is not.

Now, Yellow Fat and other Native American voters like him are racing to make sure they have identification listing some sort of street address so that their votes will not be suppressed.  Interestingly, these are the same residents who fought against allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline to run directly through the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

“The people here are so used to fighting uphill battles against the US government,” Yellow Fat said.

The question of whether Native American voters will be counted or marginalized is crucial in the upcoming midterm election, particularly since Native Americans across North Dakota are among the nation’s most important group in determining which party will control the US Senate.

According to FiveThirtyEight.com, North Dakota voters are the most powerful in the country.  A vote in North Dakota has more influence on which party will control the Senate majority than a vote in any other state.

North Dakota’s Native American’s are firmly behind incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat.  Should the predominately Republican and conservative State of North Dakota succeed in suppressing the Native American vote, GOP challenger Kevin Cramer would have a dramatically easier path to defeating Sen. Heitkamp.

Surprise!  See the game being played here?

If these Native American’s were Republican voters, would the state have issued a brand new law to suppress their vote just in time for the midterm election?  Will the lawsuit for Native American’s to regain their voting right be successful, or will legal diversions keep the suit tied up in court for years to come?

More importantly, are the old GOP disenfranchisement games (in order to fix election results) being played in Georgia and now North Dakota the new normal for our political future?

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OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
ND Native American voters are the GOP’s new
voter suppression target.