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Showing posts from August, 2016

Zero Is Not Enough—Nevada Tribes Demand Voting Rights

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This story appeared on Indian Country Today Media Network in 2016.  For more on topics like this, see my book,  American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle.... Many Nevada tribal members travel long distances to get to a ballot box. T hree Nevada Paiute tribes—Pyramid Lake, Yerington and Walker River—have asked their respective counties and the state’s secretary of state for equal access to the vote. Until now, tribal members have had very limited opportunities to cast a ballot in national elections, say chairpersons Vinton Hawley, Laurie Thom and Bobby Sanchez, respectively.  Yerington’s situation is extreme, Thom told the secretary of state: “Our tribal members have zero access to in-person voter registration, in-person early voting and in-person Election Day voting on our reservation.” The vast distances that many tribal members must travel if they wish to vote in Nevada—ranging from scores to hundreds of miles—exacerbates the inequality, said Bret Healy, of