We Need An Indian Voting Rights Act

Though the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited states and the federal government from denying citizens the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” in practice, Native Americans have seen countless formal and informal obstacles put up over the years to prevent their casting a ballot in American elections. Even today, tribal communities continue to experience significant hurdles when attempting to exercise their right to vote.

Initially, Native Americans were largely excluded from voting because the federal government did not consider tribal citizens to be U.S. citizens. Only in 1924 did Congress pass the Indian Citizenship Act which extended U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial United States. But even then, many states continued to bar Indigenous people from the polls. States such as Arizona and New Mexico did not recognize Native voting rights until after World War II, and Utah did not fully enfranchise Native people until 1957 — more than three decades after the Indian Citizenship Act.

Indian Voting Rights Upheld, from the Navajo Times. [Library of Congress]

Native American veterans who had fought bravely in World War II, only to find themselves treated as second class citizens when they returned home, protested their disenfranchisement:

“Frank Harrison, an Apache, prevailed in the Arizona Supreme Court in 1948. Reversing an older decision, the court found that a state constitutional provision denying suffrage to ‘persons under guardianship referred to individuals declared by a court to be incompetent for mental or other reasons. Although Indians are ‘regarded and treated by the United States as requiring special consideration and protection,’ the special federal relationship with Indians, sometimes referred to as a guardianship, did not prevent Indian suffrage. In the New Mexico case the court also upheld the right of Indians to vote and directly referred to the military service of Miguel Trujillo, a Pueblo Indian and former marine, and his coplaintiffs: ‘We all know these New Mexico Indians have responded to the needs of the country in time of war. Why should they be deprived of their rights to vote now because they are favored by the federal government in exempting their lands from taxation?” — *Blood Struggle *by Charles Wilkinson

Even when Native Americans gained formal voting rights, states used familiar tactics — English-only literacy tests, residency restrictions, and gerrymandering — to suppress Indigenous participation. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 dismantled many of these overt barriers, but its protections have weakened in the past decade. Logistical challenges and voting procedures which fail to account for the unique aspects of tribal life continue to prevail. As a result, Native voters today continue to encounter obstacles that echo the past.

One of the most basic problems is geography. Many reservations are rural and remote. In some cases, the nearest polling place may be hours away and transportation options are often limited. The House Committee on Administration’s 2024 report describes tribal members traveling 40, 60, even 100 miles round-trip simply to cast a ballot or register to vote. Polling places are not always logically situated. Some tribes hold local elections on the same day as state and federal elections. Instead of collocating polling places on the reservation, it is not unheard of for voters to need to go to two different precincts separated by significant distances to cast separate ballots. This problem is caused, in part, by reservations which span across state lines or local voting boundaries.

Indigenous population based on the 2020 US Census [Wikicommons]

Compounding this problem is the fact that many Indigenous people live in homes that do not have “traditional” residential street addresses — or any address at all beyond a P.O. box. For many tribal communities, mail service is limited, and the idea of a “street number” makes little sense. In some cases, this has caused registration materials and balloted to never arrive. As those challenges stack up, voter turnout suffers.

Additionally, in many states, you can’t vote without showing a valid photo ID. But strict ID laws can disproportionately burden Native Americans. Tribal IDs, often the only state or federal ID many tribal members have, may be rejected. Some state laws require IDs with a residential street address, which many reservation IDs lack. This was a core issue in lawsuits brought by tribes such as the Spirit Lake Tribe and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in states like North Dakota.

Furthermore, many Native Americans speak tribal languages or use non-English first languages. Though Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act requires bilingual voting materials in specific jurisdictions with a large number of non-English speakers, only a limited number of precincts fall under its coverage. The Native American Rights Fund has documented repeated instances where voting officials in Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah have failed to comply with their obligations under Section 203 to provide translated voting materials to Native American voters. In other cases, where written translations into tribal languages are provided, they are not culturally appropriate or usable to the voter because of the poor translation.

Moreover, remote broadband deserts and poor outreach infrastructure make voter registration and education difficult. As the “digital divide” between urban and rural areas grows, tribal reservations find themselves falling further and further behind. As many communities move to providing voter information online or digitalizing the voter registration process, Native Americans without stable internet or cell service are finding it even more difficult to cast their ballots.

Finally, even when tribal members manage to vote, their votes do not always count for much. Manipulative redistricting — drawing legislative or congressional maps to avoid “concentrating” Native voters — dilutes their electoral power. The 2024 report by the House Committee on Administration documented that lawmakers often pack super-majorities of Native voters into single electoral districts, even when the community is large enough to constitute a majority and elect candidates of choice in more than one district.

Recent developments show there can be progress when voters and lawmakers make space to listen. For example, the state of Colorado expanded its automatic voter-registration laws in 2023 to include tribal membership lists — making it the first state in the nation to do so. Under that statute, tribal governments may submit lists of their eligible members to the state, which will then register them automatically unless individuals opt out. State leaders in Colorado and advocates for Native voting rights hope this will significantly boost registration among tribal members — particularly those without driver’s licenses, traditional street addresses, or reliable mail service.

Nationally, it is time for an Indian Voting Rights Act. The federal government has a special responsibility to tribal nations — one that must include ensuring equal access to the ballot. Giving the scale and persistence of barriers to voting by Native Americans, it is imperative that Congress act to ensure that all Americans, both native and non-native, have the opportunity to cast their ballots in every election.

To be effective, an Indian Voting Rights Act should guarantee every Reservation has at least one polling place or ballot return box. Even this minimum threshold to voting access is not currently required nationwide and implementing it would reduce a major obstacle to voting for tribal voters. Additionally, Congress should formally authorize tribes to designate tribally-owned buildings or post offices as “addresses” for election purposes. This small change would account for a reality of life on reservations where many residents lack a traditional street address. Federal law should also guarantee that tribal identification be a valid form of ID for voting purposes and that voting information be made available in a culturally appropriate manner and in hard copy. The federal government should also explicitly forbid gerrymandering intended to dilute tribal voting by intentionally splitting tribal communities up and establish a Department of Justice task force dedicated to protecting Native American voting rights.

Native Americans have fought for nearly a century to secure the right to vote only to face new obstacles that echo old barriers. Every American, including the first peoples on this continent, should be able to cast a ballot freely, safely, and equally. Democracy is not real unless it includes everyone.

Nicholas Monck chairs the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division’s Government, Military, and Public Sector Lawyers Committee. He served as the Deputy Director for Voter Protection for the Colorado Democratic Party in 2018 and Boulder County Democratic Party Legal Team Co-Lead from 2017–2019. Opinions expressed are his own and do not represent the views of his employer.