I wrote a piece on gerrymandering the Tribal vote in Maine for the Board of the Maine People's Alliance, which wasn't really a Tribal Sovereignty piece, since no part depended on the 1980 (Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseets) or 1994 (Mic'mac) Settlement Acts, or the status of Abenakis (none). It was about gerrymandering. With that inelegant intro, some dancing, via Scott Thorson of KELOLAND TV:
It's one of the most unique areas in the country, and that might cause problems come Election Day. The Standing Rock Indian Reservation is located in both North and South Dakota, which means tribal members claim both states as their own. More than 10% of the people in Corson County have already voted absentee in the 2004 election.While the county is in South Dakota, Standing Rock Reservation doesn't recognize borders. Now auditors fear reservation members living in North Dakota could sneak through the electoral cracks.
Dorothy Schuh, Corson County Auditor, said, "Well, we have to trust the voters and we train people and expect that they are being honest because if they are voting in both states, it is illegal."
But Schuh says trust alone won't prevent double voting because people living on the reservation could find loopholes on where they live. What further complicates matters is the fact that North Dakota is the only state in the nation that doesn't have a registration process before voting.
Schuh said, "One of the acceptable forms of ID is a tribal ID and it has to have a photo copy, but North Dakota doesn't have voter registration so there's no way of cross referencing, cross checking their list to ours cause they don't have one."
And election officials worry that when it comes to a tight race, people could be influenced to make every vote count, even if it means breaking the law.
Schuh said, "Ya know there is a right to vote, but there's a responsibility with voting too and we have to put some of the responsibility on the voters to do the right thing."
And that's adding to the pressure of coordinating the vote in Corson County.
Schuh said, "I'll be glad when it's over."
The South Dakota Attorney Generals office looked into voting discrepancies on the Standing Rock Reservation during last Junes primary election. So far no one has been arrested on any charges.
Thinking about this made a light bulb go off in an unused corner of my mind. I look forward to writing about Santa Clara Pueblo vs Martinez in the near future.
Posted by EBW at October 27, 2004 08:11 PM | TrackBack