ELKO – Early voting dates were added at a reservation on the Nevada-Idaho border after Shoshone-Paiute tribal members sued over equal access.
The Elko County Clerk had scheduled three days of early voting at the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Owyhee for the first time this year, then added five more at the end of October and early November as a result of the lawsuit. Owyhee will also have a ballot drop-box on Election Day.
The lawsuit claimed that the limited early voting schedule “violates state law, and imposes constitutional burdens on their fundamental right to vote.”
The Duck Valley tribes were assisted in the lawsuit by Four Directions Native Vote.
The complaint was filed Sept. 16 and Elko District Judge Al Kacin heard five hours of testimony on Oct. 18. District Judge William Maddox of Carson City presided over a settlement conference the following day.
“After meeting for several hours, the Tribes and Elko County settled the equal voting access lawsuit for all future elections with greatly expanded access for election 2022,” stated Four Directions.
“We are eternally grateful for Four Direction’s help in this historic lawsuit in which we increased access to the poll 5 times fold and starting in 2024 we will have equal access to the polls with the same days and hours as the good citizen living in the Elko County seat,” stated Tribal Chairman Brian Mason. “We were given citizenship in 1924 and it took us until 2022 to acquire equal access in the Electoral Process.”
“Voting is the backbone of Democracy in America,” stated Four Directions Native Vote Director OJ Semans. “A fifteen-fold advantage for the residents of Elko compared to the members of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation cannot – in any court or by anyone – be considered an equal shot at the ballot box.”
Miller Law and Sandven Law represented the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes. They also successfully represented the plaintiffs in Sanchez v Cegavske in a similar equal access lawsuit in 2016.
Elko County Clerk Kris Jakeman this week confirmed the additional voting access at Owyhee.
“The Clerk’s Office will provide twelve days of early in-person voting and in-person voting on election day on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation starting in the 2024 election cycle,” she said. “The in-person polling location days and hours of service on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation will be the same as the in-person polling location days and hours of service in Elko.”
Jakeman said “the Reservation agrees and understands that the thirteen days of in-person voting are on the condition that the Reservation continues to meet all the criteria for an in-person polling location, including, but not limited to, a sufficient number of poll workers that have been trained to the satisfaction of the Elko County Clerk for all election days.”
Two days of early voting were also scheduled this year at the Elko Indian Colony, but Te-Moak Tribe members were not part of the lawsuit to extend their dates.
The county clerk also mails ballots to all registered voters, who can vote and drop them in any mailbox up until Election Day.
Source: Elko Daily; 11/6/2022
