The Independent View: Securing Indian Voting Rights

In the April 8th Harvard Law Review is an extensive development piece on the issue of Securing Indian Voting Rights.

Half a century after the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and a full one after the Indian Citizenship Act, Indians still face a host of “second generation barriers” to voting and representation.

While the Voting Rights Act has made significant progress in protecting Indian voting rights, its limitations have become all the more obvious recently.

In its absence, something, possibly renewed Congressional action in the form of legislation like TEAVA and NAVRA, is needed to fill the gap.

The DOJ has drafted the Tribal Equal Access to Voting Act of 2015 (TEAVA), much of which was incorporated into and expanded upon in the Native American Voting Rights Act of 2015 (NAVRA) that was introduced in the Senate. The bills’ substantive provisions overlap considerably, both bills would cover local jurisdictions that encompass Indian Reservations and Alaska Native areas and would include, among others:

(1) A preclearance provision prescribing federal review of changes affecting voter registration sites, early voting locations, and election-day polling stations on Indian reservations.

(2) A consultation provision requiring state and local jurisdictions that overlap with Indian reservations to consult with tribes when locating polling stations (including early voting stations).

NAVRA also contains a tribal-identification provision under which states must accept tribal identification in satisfaction of identification requirements.

At the very least, to the extent that voting rights will become increasingly reliant on private protection in this new doctrinal environment, the vulnerability of the Indian franchise must not be forgotten.

At a minimum, hope this will have brought attention to this oft-overlooked corner of the voting-rights world.

CLICK HERE to read Securing Indian Voting Rights.