In a second legal case, Navajo Nation members, with help from nonprofit Four Directions, sued Arizona in August in an attempt to secure equal access to mail-in-voting by extending the timeframe in which the state accepts absentee ballots. Current law requires mail-in ballots are received by 7 p.m. on Nov. 3; plaintiffs are asking the state to consider mail-in ballots postmarked on or before Election Day that arrive within 10 days of Nov. 3.
The lawsuit also highlights disparities in access to mail and transport, stating that “there is one Post Office for every 15.3 square miles in Scottsdale, versus one Post Office every 707 square miles On-Reservation.” About 29% of (Navajo Nation Tribal) member households do not own a vehicle, it reads. “All we’re asking is that they have the same type of timeframe in which to look at that ballot and cast it to make it fair,” says OJ Semans, the group’s co-executive director.
The Trump campaign recently filed a motion to intervene in the Four Directions lawsuit, arguing expanding the deadline would change the election results, provide special treatment to some citizens and “sow confusion and delay,” but the motion was denied.
For Semans, the case is a matter of accessing constitutional rights, not partisan politics. “We don’t go to court on behalf of one party or the other because we have seen both parties—Democrats and Republicans—have taken action that has adversely affected Indian Country,” Semans says. “We have sued Republicans, we have sued Democrats.”
Source: TIME Magazine; 10/8/20
