American Indian Communities

Voting by Mail and American Indian Communities

Voting by mail is one element of larger, systemic issues related to difficulties American Indians face when voting in United States elections.¹ Some of these challenges are unique to American Indian nations due to the limited infrastructure essential to voting by mail from identification documents to residential mailboxes, even in comparison to other rural communities throughout the United States. Other difficulties outlined here also affect other populations, including voters living in rural areas, people with mobility issues, and unhoused populations. The goal of this essay is to emphasize that not everyone has the same access to things others might take for granted and to highlight issues American Indians specifically have faced when voting by mail in U.S. elections.

The United States government officially recognizes 574 Indian Nations. Approximately 229 of these ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse nations are in Alaska; the other federally recognized tribes are in 35 other states, the majority in the western half of the United States.² Voting by mail has gained traction nationally and some western states such as Oregon, Montana, Arizona, and Washington have moved toward universal mail voting in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.³ Although this has made voting more accessible for some communities, many Native Americans living in tribal nations within the Midwest, Southwest, West Coast, and Alaska have faced additional difficulties when it comes to voting by mail.⁴ A series of field hearings undertaken by the Native American Voting Rights Coalition in 2017-2018 found that issues with voting by mail was one of the many roadblocks Native Americans contend with when voting in non-Tribal elections.⁵ Although procedures for United States local, state, and federal elections vary, testimonies recorded at these field hearings demonstrate that people living in different regions have experienced many of the same issues when it comes to voting.

American Indians who live in rural areas struggle with voting by mail where long distances between post offices and residences, lack of public or personal transportation, nontraditional addresses, and language barriers make this method of receiving and casting ballots difficult.⁶ Logistical considerations in isolated rural areas hamper effective delivery and return times for voting by mail. This can affect significant proportions of the population, such as the approximately one-third of all American Indians and Alaska Natives who live in Hard-to-Count Census Tracts, with the greatest numbers in western states New Mexico, Arizona, and Alaska.⁷ Geographic isolation means rural residents often do not have traditional, city-style addresses,⁸ which can cause confusion for poll workers who are unfamiliar with the format. Furthermore, mail service can be more inconsistent and mail can take longer to reach residents living on reservations; in a 2020 research study on mailing time undertaken within the Navajo Nation and Arizona, results showed that certified first-class mail to the County Recorder’s office from Teec Nos Pos (located on reservation land) took over twice as long as it did for the equivalent mail from Concho (located off-reservation).⁹ Overall, the study found that average delivery time for certified first-class mail was approximately 39 hours from urban post offices, 49 hours from off-reservation rural post offices, and 113 hours from post offices on the reservation.¹⁰

Mail often is not delivered to residences on reservations and there are fewer post offices. This leaves the option of paying for post office boxes, an additional expense that has the potential to cause issues when ballots are mailed, depending on the state. Many tribal members do not live close to a post office and checking their mail can be a time consuming and difficult task, depending on the roads and the weather. Furthermore, there is more demand than supply of PO boxes, which leads to families sharing a box or being forced to rent a box a post office even further away, at times in another state.¹¹ As a result, many Native American voters do not check their mail regularly or report that mail service is unreliable.¹²

In the 2017-2018 NARF hearings, some expressed support for voting by mail. However, the majority of people who testified opposed it, occasionally in strong terms. No polling or voting strategy is a panacea and voting by mail is not a “one size fits all” solution for making voting accessible. As legal scholar and attorney Patty Ferguson-Bohnee has put it,

“For some, voting by mail has given them more choices and made voting more convenient. However, we need to think about the effects on minority and language minority populations when we eliminate or move polling locations because a right as sacred as voting should not be lost for minority populations in search of convenience for other populations.”¹³

The National Postal Museum is interested in collecting objects related to the topics discussed here for all types of elections and time periods. If you are interested in donating, please visit: Donating Collection Objects or Archival Materials.

Bibliography and Additional Resources:

• Library of Congress. “Voting Rights for Native Americans.” Voting Rights for Native Americans | The Right to Vote | Elections | Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress (loc.gov). Accessed July 19, 2024.
• De Leon, Jacqueline, James Thomas Tucker, and Dan McCool. Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters. (Native American Rights Fund, 2020). Native American Voting Rights Project - Native American Rights Fund (narf.org). Accessed July 19, 2024.
• Ferguson-Bohnee, Patty “How the Native American Vote Continues to be Suppressed,” Human Rights Magazine vol. 45, no. 1, February 9, 2020. Accessed July 19, 2024.
• Ferguson-Bohnee, Patty and James Tucker, “Voting During a Pandemic: Vote-by-Mail Challenges for Native Voters,” Arizona Attorney (July/August): 24–35.
• Gleason, Megan. “Lawmakers discuss how Native American Voting Rights Act is changing election processes • Source New Mexico (sourcenm.com).” October 24, 2023. Source NM. Accessed July 19, 2024.
• Lee, Morgan. “100 years ago, US citizenship for Native Americans came without voting rights in swing states | AP News.” June 1, 2024. AP News. Accessed July 19, 2024.
• National Congress of American Indians, Tribal Nations and the United States: An Introduction (February 2020) Indian_Country_101_Updated_February_2019.pdf (ncai.org). Accessed July 19, 2024.
• Native American Rights Fund. “VOTE BY MAIL - Native American Rights Fund (narf.org).” Accessed July 19, 2024.
• Schroedel, Jean, Joseph Dietrich, and Kara Mazareas. “The 2020 Election in Indian Country: Progress, but Equity Is Still Elusive.” Political Science Today 1, no. 2 (2021): 9–10. Accessed July 19, 2024.
• Schroedel, Jean. Voting in Indian Country: The View From the Trenches. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020).