South Dakota Debates Need, Cost for Native American Vote Centers

[Image courtesy of truckerhunt]

This week, the South Dakota Board of Elections has been discussing whether and how to serve Native American voters in certain rural counties. The Argus Leader has more:

The South Dakota Board of Elections on Wednesday declined to endorse a proposal from an advocacy group that called for using federal funds to establish satellite voting centers in three predominantly Native American towns.

Four Directions Inc. of Mission requested that the board endorse its plan to use money from the Help America Vote Act, which Congress passed after the contentious 2000 presidential election to modernize voting procedures and administration. The state has about $9 million remaining in HAVA funds, and for less than $50,000 an election, HAVA funds could be used to establish satellite voting centers in Wanblee, Eagle Butte and Fort Thompson.

Proponents argue that unlike other communities – where vote centers are established in county seats near most of the affected population – the Native American population centers in the three counties are sufficiently distant from the usual location that satellite centers make sense, especially given the Voting Rights Act:

All three towns have larger populations than their respective county seats. Fort Thompson, for example, has a population of 1,375 people, while the county seat of Buffalo County, Gann Valley, has a population of 14. County seats, however, are the only places where people can cast in-person absentee ballots …

Board member Patty McGee, who also is the Sully County auditor, argued that residents in the three communities in question already have the same voting rights as residents in other counties, including hers. She argued that residents in her county also had to drive long distances to the county seat in order to cast early ballots. And she said that Native Americans in the three communities already travel to their county seats to get driver’s licenses and welfare benefits.

But [Four Directions spokesman Bret] Healy argued that there’s a difference between other counties and the three in question. Native Americans are a protected class under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the three communities in question have large percentages of that protected class, he said.

For the time being, the proposal is on hold while the Secretary of State seeks approval from the federal Election Assistance Commission for the use of federal funds to establish the satellite centers. Until then, proponents will continue to press their case in hopes of bringing early voting locations closer to the voters that they serve.