2012: Forging Partnerships for Early Voting on Cheyenne River Reservation
“We sat down with the county auditor [the official supervising voting in South Dakota], figured out how it would work, and now early voting and registration are available in the Tribal hall, with a tribal member deputized to supervise the process,” said Wayne Ducheneaux, tribal administrative officer. “We were able to come to an agreement quickly.”
“Dewey County is the gold standard in tribal- county relations,” said O.J. Semans, Rosebud Sioux director of the voting-rights nonprofit Four Directions…“The county has been not just cooperative but cost-effective, because they don’t require their staff to travel to the reservation every day.”
STEPHANIE WOODARD, INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY MEDIA NETWORK, 10.24.14
The Problem
What’s the most cost-effective way to run an early voting office on a reservation? That’s the question Dewey County officials asked Four Directions after we worked with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe to open a satellite office at the Tribal capital. Four Directions developed a novel solution that has since become the gold standard for satellite voting offices.
The Solution
Deputize a Tribal official to run the satellite voting office at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation Tribal headquarters.
The Four Directions approach
Every time we work with state, local, and Tribal officials to open a satellite voting office, we present many options to take care of everyone’s concerns. Some counties dig in, eventually forcing costly litigation. Dewey County wanted to work with the Tribe to solve the problem.
Leveraging strong relationships between local county commissioners and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal leaders, Four Directions suggested that the county commission deputize a Tribal official to administer the satellite voting office at the Tribal headquarters. This solution solved a number of concerns:
1. Building trust
Deputizing a Tribal official opened an opportunity for state, local, and Tribal governments to collaboratively solve an important voting rights issue. The County Auditor provided training. The Tribal government provided a trusted administrator. Working together, these governments started building trust in each other where sometimes little existed before.
2. Sharing costs
Local government and Tribal government partnered to minimize and share costs to open a satellite voting office for equal access to early voting for all.
3. Ensuring continuity
With shared costs and deeper levels of trust, Dewey County officials and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe forged a strong voting rights partnership that persists today.
The Result
With a satellite voting office administered by the Tribe at the Tribal headquarters, Dewey County’s 2012 election turnout increased 7.6 percent over the previous 2008 U.S. presidential election with no funded GOTV effort compared to a 3.3% decrease across all of South Dakota.
