President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign is fighting a group of Navajo Nation citizens who want Arizona’s mail-in voting requirements changed in line with a dozen other states, for fear that ballots sent from the tribe’s reservation won’t be counted in the November election.
The motion filed Thursday in federal court by the Trump campaign and other state and national Republican committees attempts to undercut the message of six Navajo plaintiffs who say in a lawsuit that the state’s current stipulation — that mail-in ballots must be received before 7 p.m. Nov. 3 instead of postmarked by that date — could disenfranchise Native American voters.
“Plaintiffs seek to create a race- and geography-based exception to a long-standing, generally applicable state law that would give certain citizens more time to return their requested early ballots than every other Arizona voter in the upcoming General Election,” Brett Johnson, an attorney for the campaign, wrote in the filing.
“What is more, Plaintiffs’ unwarranted delay in bringing their claims on the eve of a General Election threatens the orderly administration of that election,” the motion continued, adding that changing the deadline rule “would unquestionably affect the share of votes that candidates in the State of Arizona receive.”
OJ Semans Sr., co-executive director of Four Directions, a Native American voting rights group assisting in the plaintiffs’ lawsuit, said many Native Americans would prefer to vote in-person, but the pandemic has thrown many voters on reservations for a loop this year, particularly in the hard-hit Navajo Nation.
Navajo Nation citizens face a multitude of hardships when it comes to voting by mail, Semans added, including that many on the reservation don’t have traditional addresses and mailboxes, going to the nearest post office is difficult because there’s only one for every 707 square miles on the reservation, and less than one-third of tribal households own a car.
Affording extra days to count ballots from tribal residents is “really just a common sense request,” Semans said, adding that Hobbs could choose to expand that decision to all Arizona residents if people are concerned it gives Navajo voters an “advantage.”
Source: NBC News; 9/4/20
