Fort Peck tribal members are suing Valley County to establish satellite voting locations, citing inadequate voting access for Indigenous voters. Attorneys argue the lack of these locations in Frazer and Poplar infringes on the rights of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. Currently, voters must travel 23 miles one way to vote and receive basic assistance available off-reservation. The reservation straddles Valley and Roosevelt counties, and the tribes have requested both to improve voting access for tribal members in the upcoming election.
The lawsuit was filed Monday in state District Court by Sariah Old Elk, Terry Thompson, Angie Toce, Joseph Dolezilek, Delane Blount, and Brandi Long-White. Defendants include county commissioners from both Valley and Roosevelt counties, as well as Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen.
Brett Healy, a voting rights specialist in Indian Country, noted that county courthouses were located off-reservation over a century ago, a time when Indigenous people couldn’t vote or had citizenship. “The locations of these courthouses were a political decision mostly made in the West before Indians had the right to vote or had citizenship, and certainly long before there was an effective voting power,” Healy said. He also pointed out issues with mail-in voting, noting, “The U.S. postal system is inherently unequal because it’s still trapped in the amber of the 1900s, of where these postal locations are located and especially where they were not. They were not on Indian reservations.”
In-person voting starts Oct. 8 in Montana, with absentee ballots mailed out on Oct. 11. The Valley County Clerk and Recorder declined to comment on the issue when contacted.
The Fort Peck Tribes have offered to provide county officials with building space and volunteers for satellite voting locations. They propose Medicine Bear Complex in Poplar and the Freda Fourstar Omak’ce “One With Many Children” Community Hall in Frazer, citing the 1,100 people counted in these communities in the 2020 census. The current closest polling place to Poplar is 46 miles round trip to Wolf Point, and a 58-mile round trip from Frazer to Glasgow. Federal courts have previously deemed a 16-mile distance too far for Indigenous voters, said Healy.
In 2015, Indigenous voters succeeded in pushing for satellite election locations on reservations, leading to a requirement that counties notify tribal governments a month in advance to request satellite voting sites. Counties must then study the necessity of these offices. The Fort Peck Tribes report no received analysis from the counties despite their requests. They are prepared to offer necessary facilities and internet connections for the satellite locations.
In 2012, Indigenous voters worked with the American Civil Liberties Union to sue for better voting access, winning the case. However, by 2014, only Big Horn County, home to the Crow Reservation, had implemented satellite offices. Several tribes failed to make timely requests within the one-month window.
—
Read More Montana News
