A group of Native Americans urged the Eighth Circuit on Monday to Preserve a North Dakota Federal Judge’s Injunction that Blocked portions of a 2017 State Voter Identification Law for Discriminating against Native Voters, saying the State had furnished No Evidence of Voter Fraud that would justify the Law.
North Dakota is seeking to Overturn Chief U.S. District Judge Daniel L. Hovland’s April Order, issued when the Judge found the State’s 2017 Law had Problems, including Requiring an ID with a Residential Address, which he said had made it difficult and sometimes impossible for some Native Americans on Rural Reservations to Cast Ballots.
Like other Voter ID Laws that have been challenged, the North Dakota Statute was passed by a Republican-led Legislature that asserted Stronger Measures were needed to Curb Voter Fraud. Democratic Legislators said that it was intended solely to Suppress Voting among traditionally Democratic Constituencies.
“The record is replete with concrete evidence of significant burdens imposed on Native American voters attempting to exercise their right to vote,” Judge Hovland wrote. Nor, he stated, “was there any evidence that the state needed such a restrictive ID policy.”
Plaintiffs’ Lawyer, Thomas A. Dickson of Bismarck, said he believed that the State’s Elections Procedures, which once were Nonpartisan, had become ensnarled in the Ideological and Political Conflict that has divided the rest of the Nation. “We want everyone to vote,” Dickson said, “and whoever has the most votes, they win. That’s the American way. Somehow, we’ve gotten away from that.”
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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