Indian Country’s Voice: Recognizing, Respecting and Protecting Our Electoral Power

Abstract

After Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential Election, Republican lawmakers across the country introduced swaths of legislation that will make voting more burdensome with the effect of suppressing future turnout. Without impugning their intentions, the motivation is clear: keep Americans from the ballot box to maintain GOP control; or, more specifically, keep Americans who they don’t agree with (i.e. many members of the BIPOC community) from participating in our democracy. They even said so much themselves. The actions of lawmakers indicate that if the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election had been a Republican victory, many partisan bills masquerading as ‘election integrity’ would likely have never been drafted. Further, we can say with absolute certainty that rhetoric about the security and validity of American elections would be radically different. Last fall, AIPI highlighted the many barriers precluding Native American participation in our democracy, emphasizing the need to remain vigilant to safeguard our right to vote ahead of the 2020 election. With all that has transpired since then, including record voter turnout in Indian Country, our vigilance must persist as the right to vote is presently under attack across the United States. This article provides a cursory overview of what has been taking place with regard to voting rights, specifically in Arizona, and the potential impacts on voters, especially those in Native American communities.