Yellowstone County Courthouse, courtesy Sara goth, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
On Monday, August 15, 2022, the Blackfeet Nation, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, the Fort Belknap Indian Community, and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Western Native Voice, and Montana Native Vote begin their trial in Billings, Mont., to protect voting rights.
They challenge the constitutionality of HB 176, would have ended same-day registration, which reservation voters have relied upon to cast votes in Montana since 2005. They also challenge the constitutionality of HB 530, which prohibits organized ballot collection.
Indigenous voters on rural reservations, where residential mail delivery is often limited or nonexistent, disproportionately rely on the service of ballot collectors to cast their votes. In 2020, a Montana court struck down a similar measure as unconstitutional after listening to “cold, hard data” on its detrimental impact on the Native vote.
In April 2022, the plaintiffs won a preliminary injunction granted by the Montana 13th Judicial District Court that would have prevented HB 176 and HB 530 from taking effect in the current election cycle. The state appealed and unfortunately on May 17, 2022, the Montana Supreme Court partially stayed the injunction, which means for now, reservation and rural voters must make several trips across often great distances to participate in 2022 elections: once to register and again later, to vote.
The Native American Rights Fund, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU-MT, and Harvard Law School’s Election Law Clinic represent the tribal governments and the GOTV organizations in the trial seeking to permanently strike HB 176 and HB 530 as constitutional. The courts combined this case with related cases challenging these laws as well as HB 506, which places further limits on absentee voting, and SB 169, which makes the state’s voter ID requirement much more restrictive.
Trial begins in Billings, before the Montana 13th Judicial District Court on Monday, August 15, and is expected to run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (MT) through August 26.
Read More: Western Native Voice et al v. Jacobsen et al
The post Tribes and Native Orgs Seek to Protect Voting Rights at Montana Trial appeared first on Native American Rights Fund.
Yellowstone County Courthouse, courtesy Sara goth, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
On Monday, August 15, 2022, the Blackfeet Nation, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation, the Fort Belknap Indian Community, and the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, Western Native Voice, and Montana Native Vote begin their trial in Billings, Mont., to protect voting rights.
They challenge the constitutionality of HB 176, would have ended same-day registration, which reservation voters have relied upon to cast votes in Montana since 2005. They also challenge the constitutionality of HB 530, which prohibits organized ballot collection.
Indigenous voters on rural reservations, where residential mail delivery is often limited or nonexistent, disproportionately rely on the service of ballot collectors to cast their votes. In 2020, a Montana court struck down a similar measure as unconstitutional after listening to “cold, hard data” on its detrimental impact on the Native vote.
In April 2022, the plaintiffs won a preliminary injunction granted by the Montana 13th Judicial District Court that would have prevented HB 176 and HB 530 from taking effect in the current election cycle. The state appealed and unfortunately on May 17, 2022, the Montana Supreme Court partially stayed the injunction, which means for now, reservation and rural voters must make several trips across often great distances to participate in 2022 elections: once to register and again later, to vote.
The Native American Rights Fund, American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU-MT, and Harvard Law School’s Election Law Clinic represent the tribal governments and the GOTV organizations in the trial seeking to permanently strike HB 176 and HB 530 as constitutional. The courts combined this case with related cases challenging these laws as well as HB 506, which places further limits on absentee voting, and SB 169, which makes the state’s voter ID requirement much more restrictive.
Trial begins in Billings, before the Montana 13th Judicial District Court on Monday, August 15, and is expected to run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (MT) through August 26.
Read More: Western Native Voice et al v. Jacobsen et al
The post Tribes and Native Orgs Seek to Protect Voting Rights at Montana Trial appeared first on Native American Rights Fund.