Will Montana Indians Determine Control of the U.S. Senate?
A version of this article first appeared on NBC.com and 100Reporters.com in October 2012.
With control of the U.S.
Senate in the balance, a Native American voting-rights hearing in U.S. District
Court in Billings, Montana, later this week is shaping up to be a riveting
spectacle.
A surprising array of Democrats and Republicans are ranged against the
16 tribal members who have sued for early-voting offices on their reservations. (Attorney Steven D. Sandven, near left, plaintiffs and supporters deliver the lawsuit to the Billings courthouse.)
“It’s the poorest of the
poor versus the billionaires,” said Tom Rodgers, a member the Blackfeet, a
Montana tribe.
In late August, Republican powerbroker Karl
Rove told a meeting of the country’s super-rich that Montana Democrat Jon
Tester’s Senate seat was one of the Republican Party’s best shots at Senate
control, according to Bloomberg
Businessweek. The neck-and-neck race
between Tester and Republican challenger U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg was
important then. It’s even more so today, now that Missouri appears to be off
the Republican list, following remarks about “legitimate rape” by the party’s
candidate, Todd Akin.
“Millions are flowing into Montana
to influence the Senate race,” said Rodgers, who was the whistleblower in the
Jack Abramoff scandal. “And now we have Indians suing for voting rights.”
In the federal suit, filed
October 10, tribal members from the Northern Cheyenne, Crow and Fort Belknap
reservations say that without satellite early-voting offices on their
reservations, they must drive long distances to early-vote or late-register in
their county seat. This is a burden for destitute tribal members who may not
have vehicles or gas money for the trip, and the unequal access is illegal and unconstitutional,
they say.
Improved ballot-box access would have real and immediate
results, said a local official. “With satellite stations in our
communities, we could exercise our right to vote, but also important, we could register
voters,” said Rosebud County commissioner Danny Sioux, a Northern
Cheyenne. “We could explain voters’ rights. On the Northern Cheyenne
reservation alone, our current 400 active registered voters could become 3,000 and
impact elections all the way up to the federal level. ”
Presiding over the hearing
later this week will be Chief U.S. District Court Judge Richard Cebull, a Republican
who achieved national prominence earlier this year by forwarding a crude email
about President Obama’s mother. After the message became public, Cebull denied
accusations of racism, and promised local newspapers that he would no longer
send non-work-related emails from his office computer.
The lead defendant is a
Democrat: Montana’s top election official, Secretary of State Linda McCulloch, who
running for re-election. McCulloch recently told the Associated
Press that the Native voters’ claim “has merit,” but they should have started
talking to her about it a year ago. As it was, the talks were moving into their
sixth month when tribal members filed suit.
On the county level, election
officials from both parties failed to set up
satellite early-voting offices, and the suit names them as well. “I don’t care if they’re white,
black or Chinese,” Republican county elections official Geraldine Custer told Indian Country Today, the national
Native-owned newsmagazine. “I just don’t have the staff. It’s not about race.
I’m just swamped.” (And, yes, she says her husband is a distant relative of that Custer, whom Indians helped into
history in Montana in 1876.)
The negotiations for
reservation early-voting offices began May 2 with a request from the Blackfeet
Nation. Documents filed with the lawsuit indicate that in July, the secretary
of state’s legal counsel, Jorge Quintana, wrote to tribal advisors that such
offices were prohibited in Montana.
Then McCulloch consulted
with the state’s attorney general and head lawman, Steve Bullock, a Democrat
running for governor. Bullock advised her on August 17 that the state already
has forms of satellite voting. On August 28, McCulloch changed course, issuing
an advisory saying the facilities were legal and doable, but discretionary.
McCulloch told the counties. She didn’t tell the
tribes.
Terri L. McCoy, the secretary of
state’s communications director, defended the failure to inform the tribes in
an email.“This is a local county issue,” she wrote.
Most counties with Indian
reservations apparently shelved the secretary of state’s advisory without informing
the tribes within their borders. Leaders of the suing tribes said they didn’t
learn until mid-September that satellite early voting was even a possibility
for their people. In the end, only Glacier County provided satellite early
voting and registration, for the Blackfeet.
The Montana Democratic Party
appears to be in an awkward spot. Spokesman Chris Saeger described
efforts to improve ballot-box access in all forms: on and off reservations, in
person and by mail, during the early voting period and on Election Day. “We’re
working hard to ensure all Montanans have greater access to polling locations,”
Saeger said.
The Montana Republican Party did not
respond to requests for a comment.
Historically, the Democratic Party has
been hospitable to Indians, said Glacier County Commission chair Michael DesRosier, a Blackfeet
tribal member. “Our Democratic governor, Brian Schweitzer, and Senator Tester
have opened many doors and shown they truly recognize us.”
What does voting
mean to Native people? “When we come out to vote, more people will have to
start to deal with us—about health care for our veterans, access to public
transportation and more,” said DesRosier. “Otherwise, all they recognize is our
‘plight.’”
Native
people have the highest rate of military enlistment of any group in the country,
according to the Defense Department. “When we went to war, whose freedom were
we fighting for?” asked Sioux. “Ours? Or just yours?”
Text c. Stephanie Woodard; photograph courtesy William Campbell/Four Directions.
Text c. Stephanie Woodard; photograph courtesy William Campbell/Four Directions.