Brief Voting for All Americans: Native Americans

Voting for Native Americans

Native Americans, like all citizens of the United States, have the right to vote in federal, state and local elections. Native Americans may also vote in tribal elections and may have dual citizenship in two sovereign nations, the U.S. and their tribe.

For voting in federal, state and local elections, Native American voters, especially if they live on reservations, may face challenges distinct from those faced by others: rural locations, limited residential mail delivery, housing insecurity and more. These problems are not unique to Native Americans and policy choices that address these challenges often aid other voters as well. For instance, rural voters everywhere may face issues with postal service, and voters with limited literacy or English proficiency on and off reservations can benefit from plain-language elections materials.

Relevant Federal Legislation

• Passed in 1870, the 15th Amendment spells out the right to vote for all U.S. citizens regardless of race: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

• The Snyder Act of 1924 declared Native Americans were U.S. citizens and eligible to vote. However, legal barriers remained and the last state constitutional provision expressly denying Native Americans their right to vote, from Arizona, was struck down in 1948.

Overview of the Population from Greatest to Least Percentages of American Indian and Alaska Native Population

Source: U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates released in June 2023

Population, Registration and Turnout by State

The U.S. Census Bureau states that American Indian and Alaska Native populations have been growing for the last three decades. "In the 2020 decennial census, the Navajo Nation made up the largest share of the American Indian population (14.6%), followed by Cherokee (10.0%), Choctaw (3.2%) and the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina (2.5%). Cherokee made up the largest share of the American Indian alone or in any combination population (23.8%), followed by the Navajo Nation (6.7%), Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana (4.7%) and Choctaw (4.0%)."

Over 4.7 million Native Americans are eligible to vote, but only 66% of them are registered to vote according to the report Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters from the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). Voter participation is difficult to pinpoint. Unlike for white, Black, Asian-American and Hispanic Americans, the U.S. Census Bureau does not report on voter registration and turnout for Native Americans.

In lieu of census-reported data, NARF is preparing a report on turnout for Native Americans, to be based on NARF-generated estimates using states with the largest Native American populations: Washington, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Alaska. It uses general elections, averaging across presidential and midterm elections, to estimate turnout at 36.4% for Native American voters, 18.4 percentage points lower than white turnout.

Potential Challenges to Voting for Native Americans and Alaska Natives

In Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters, NARF identifies challenges for Native American Voters, some of which we summarize here:

• Geography: Traditional addresses give a number and a street name. When registering to vote, people are assigned to a voting precinct based on their home address. On reservations or in other rural areas, nontraditional addresses, or homes with no address at all, are common. Those living on Native American reservations may use a description for their address which may be hard for others to identify. Registering to vote is based on the geographic location of a home, and if that's hard to identify, it can be hard to get registered and for election officials to assign a voter to a precinct.

• Housing insecurity: Because of poverty and the lack of housing on many reservations, nontraditional residences-couch surfing-are more common, again making voter registration harder. Some people don't have fixed addresses, or they don't feel they have a residence to list on the registration forms, which may discourage them from registering to vote.

• Mail service: The U.S. Postal Service may not deliver mail to many Native American or Alaska Native homes due to nontraditional addresses and distance from towns or cities. Many of these voters may not reliably receive election materials, including absentee/mail ballots. Many Native Americans in rural areas use rented P.O. boxes for mail delivery and these P.O. boxes may be in short supply. Boxes are often shared, so ensuring that a ballot gets to the right person can be difficult. Mail delivery may take longer in rural areas. Longer postal transit time could mean absentee or mail ballots aren't returned to the election office in time to be counted.

• Poor roads and vast distances: Unpaved roads may become impassable after bad weather, and the distances between voters and resources may be large. The Navajo Nation in the southwestern United States, for example, is approximately the size of West Virginia. In such circumstances, voters' P.O. boxes could easily be 20-40 miles from their homes, and county seats even further, so making a trip to town to get a ballot is hard. On some reservations, like the Duck Water Reservation in Nevada, traveling to an in-person voting location can be over 100 miles round trip. Some Standing Rock Sioux tribal members must travel over 50 miles to the nearest South Dakota Department of Motor Vehicles office where they might register to vote.

• The digital divide: Broadband availability is often worse in rural regions, including tribal lands, than in other areas. Without reliable access to the internet, communications with election officials (such as online voter registration, online requests for absentee ballots and communications about missing ballots) can be difficult.

• English fluency: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Mississippi, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin have American Indian/Alaska Native populations with enough nonproficient English speakers that one or more Native languages are "covered" by section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. That means that in some jurisdictions, bilingual ballots and voting materials must be provided in Apache, Choctaw, Hopi, Inupiat, Navajo, Pueblo, Ute, Yup'ik or a catchall group for all other languages, according to the Department of Justice's most recent determination of covered languages from 2021. The next determination will be released in 2026.

• Literacy: Like in other high-poverty communities, low literacy rates can be a common concern on Native American reservations. Making sure that voting materials and ballots are written in plain language can make a difference.

Policies that Affect Native American Voters

• Mostly-mail voting: Eight states and D.C. have adopted all-mail voting; all but one are in the West, where the percentage of Native American voters is higher. With mostly mail voting, all voters are mailed a paper ballot to vote at home and may return their ballot through the mail or at a designated drop box or voter service center, though other in-person voting options may still be available. However, Native American voters may not have a mailbox or a fixed address and therefore getting a ballot in the mail may be difficult. Mail delivery times may be longer on tribal lands as well.

• Reducing in-person voting: Some states that implemented mostly-mail voting have reduced in-person voting options to minimize costs. These decisions may impact Native American communities more than others. If early voting can be provided on the reservation, then voters can combine voting with other errands to the tribal headquarters. Some jurisdictions use mobile registration and voting stations to meet voters where they are.

• Ballot collection laws: Laws that restrict who can collect and return voted ballots may have a disparate impact on Native American voters. In some tribal communities without access to residential mail delivery, limited access to transportation and a culture of sharing rides and errands, allowing someone besides the voter to return an absentee ballot can help facilitate voting.

• Registration requirements: Requiring citizens who are registering to vote to show a document with a traditional mailing address may not be easy for some Native American voters. Allowing voters to register using the address of tribal headquarters (as is now possible in Washington state) or by identifying on a map where their residence is, and allowing a verbal description of an address are other options.

• Forms of voter ID: In states with voter ID requirements for in-person voting, adding a tribal ID as an allowed form of identification is an option. Some tribal IDs do not include photos, or expiration dates, and accommodation for those could be made.

Recently Enacted Legislation Impacting Native American Voters 

Resources: 

Resources for Native Voters & Tribes – Native American Rights Fund 

Voting Access for Native Americans Case Studies and Best Practices – U.S. Election Assistance Commission