Native Voters Begin Final Push
During the 2004 presidential election, organizations all over the country worked overtime to inform and motivate voters right through Election Day. In particular, organizations involved in the Indian community realized the potential, and influence, of the Native American vote, and mobilized in a bigger way than ever.
With a national election in full swing, it's not hard to get people swept up in the momentum of civic pride. Volunteers are plentiful, voters are eager to have a say in deciding the leader of their country, and the donations flow freer. However, during a non-presidential election cycle, the local county board, city council or other offices just don't have the sexiness of a national election. Interest in state and local elections wane and indifference sets in, when these are the elections that can impact a person's life more directly.
This year there are more than 450 candidates running in the Nov. 7 general election for 214 state and federal offices on the ballot in Minnesota. Even though it's a non-presidential election, there is still a need for voter education.
In 2004, local Native organizations worked together with political action organizations educating their clients on voting, holding forums and registering record numbers of Native American voters.
Native Voice 2004: Minnesota Style started as a grassroots organization. Collaboration between Melanie Benjamin, chief executive of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Doreen Hagen, president of the Prairie Island Indian Community began the non-partisan group after realizing Minnesota was a swing state and that the state's 33,000 Native American eligible voters could make a difference in the elections. The organization educated Minnesota Native communities on voting rights and responsibilities, campaigning, and political action.
Native Voice 2004 had ties to the National Congress of American Indians [NCAI] effort to gain one million voters. And, a Minneapolis/St. Paul arm of the organization, Natives for Democracy Now, worked with the urban Native population.
During that election cycle, the statewide effort was coordinated by Judy Hanks [Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe], who is also project development coordinator for the Mille Lacs band. With a name change, and Hanks at the helm as board of directors, Native Voice 2004 is now non-partisan, non-profit Native Vote Alliance of Minnesota [NVAM].
"We were so successful in Native voter turnout that we went to the Mille Lacs tribal council and they unanimously passed a resolution for us to move ahead to form a non-profit," said Hanks. The tribal council is acting as the fiscal agent for the non-profit.
The NVAM board is made up of representatives from the 11 tribes in Minnesota, along with representatives from urban areas. Hanks recently spoke at a NCAI event about the training efforts in Minnesota, which has become a model for other states to replicate.
"We're the only organization in the country where all the tribes are involved. It's amazing what you can do with tribal leadership working together," said Hanks.
With the slogan, "We Vote to Honor Our Children, Our Future", NVAM kicked off their efforts last month in downtown Minneapolis with the unveiling of a billboard. The billboard, sponsored by the Mille Lacs tribe, was created by Mille Lacs artist Steve Premo.
"Fond du Lac, Red Lake, Leech Lake and Mille Lacs are also planning to sponsor billboards in their areas. It will be a unified voice and message," said Hanks.
The group is taking what they learned during the 2004 elections and moving forward with voter education and training.
"We've been working throughout the state all summer at powwows and other events. We're registering voters before they get to the polls," said Hanks. "Right now we're doing voter education, how to door knock and help get out the vote with the help of Wellstone Action. They do outstanding training."
NVAM is also creating a voter resource guide for the tribes to hand out to voters and people working at the polls that addresses all voting issues, including homeless voters and who can vouch for residents new to an area. In mid-October, they're holding an election protection workshop so voters and poll workers understand the laws surrounding Election Day. A hotline number is being provided for questions on the day of the elections.
"Last year we were going [answering questions] right up to 8 p.m.; we had tribal ID issues, questions on vouchers. Since we have same day registration in Minnesota, someone who lives in your voting district and knows you, can vouch for you. It used to be a person could vouch for an unlimited amount of people. During the last election, someone said you could only vouch for three people and there was confusion at the polls. This year, there is a law that one can vouch for 15 people," said Hanks. "We need that at the polls where there's a high Indian population. We need a lot of vouchers when there's a high Native turnout. We usually just have some vouchers there. Now, each voucher has to sign for each person they vouch for. It's just a random number. We're not sure what that impact may be."
A person new to an area with no proof of residency can still vote if they have a form of ID, and bring someone who can vouch that they are a resident. While allowing 15 people per voucher may seem like a lot of people, in rural reservation areas there may be many people in need of a voucher.
In 2004, the organization had a number of legal issues to deal with including a voting day feast at the community center and handing out surveys. Tribes had planned to hand out surveys to assess the communities voting experience and how it could be improved. It didn't ask to disclose voting choices.
"We ran into obstacles because we were so visible. A lot of Election Day activities were squelched. We got a letter telling us that we couldn't do the feast and the surveys because it was like we were paying people to vote. But on the reservations, the elections are usually held in the community center, and so is the feast. People weren't required to vote to go to the feast," said Hanks. "Someone who didn't vote could have filled out the survey, we wouldn't have known. All the tribes but Fond du Lac pulled back [on the survey]. This year we're going to have a feast and the tribes can hand out the survey, if they wish."
NVAM also did the Native community a great service by rectifying a major tribal ID issue that arose in 2004.
State law requires residents to have a specific type of identification [driver's license, state ID card; military ID or passport with a utility bill showing a current address] to register to vote. While a tribal ID was an acceptable form of identification for voting on the reservation, it wasn't accepted for voting off the reservation. It also wasn't accepted when registering prior to Election Day. And, non-Minnesota tribal IDs couldn't be used for same-day registration. In many cases, a tribal ID is a person's only form of identification. Working with the state, county attorneys and state auditor, NVAM [then Native Voice 2004], challenged the law and got it changed in time for the 2004 elections. Now, a tribal ID with a name, address, signature and photo is accepted. If the tribal ID doesn't include an address, a current utility bill is accepted with the ID. [Citizens can pre-register to vote up to October 17.]
Since then, many organizations have worked to let everyone know, including Election Day workers, that a tribal ID is an acceptable form of identification for voting.
"It's been conveyed to the election judges; you can use it on or off the reservation, and you can use any tribal ID. It's been gotten out in election training. There's been a lot of outreach to let people know," said Hanks.
NVAM is funded through the sale of t-shirts, posters and buttons through the individual tribes, along with grants, including $10,000 from the Headwaters Democracy Fund to support a Wellstone Action fellow. The grant will also fund a website and newsletter.
After going through a 30-day Wellstone Action training camp, fellow Laura Keys [Red Lake Indian Reservation] began working with NVAM as a vote coordinator intern.
"I'm new to organizing. I didn't get involved in the election process until 2004; I saw what a good opportunity that was. I wanted to get involved and get others involved. My brother is a volunteer in Duluth and asked if this is something I'd be interested in and I said I'd love to," said Keys. "I went through the fellowship training, which is the Wellstone Camp, and learned about citizen activism and working on campaigns. It was in-depth training."
Keys helps build relationships with organizations that have clientele who want to be involved in the voting process. She also does site-based voter registration at events held by various organizations.
"I like to piggyback off what they have already done," said Keys. "Native Vote worked good on the reservations, and it's a good opportunity to build a base in the city to get more people involved and become more active."
The training Keys received was part of a program offered by Wellstone Action, a national center for training and leadership development in St. Paul that offers a number of programs or ‘camps' that train people in all aspects of being involved in political activism.
Peggy Flanagan [White Earth Band of Ojibwe] is the senior organizer and trainer for Wellstone Action. As the first Native American school board member on the Minneapolis Board of Education, training activists at Wellstone Action is just one of the many things Flanagan is involved in.
In Buffalo, NY, conducting a voter engagement school workshop for the Seneca tribe, Flanagan talked about the training program and voter education activity in the Indian community.
"The training was originally created for non-profit organizations but then we did two training schools in Minnesota this summer and that grew to South Dakota and now to the Seneca tribe," said Flanagan, who will also train attendees at an upcoming NCAI conference.
The voter engagement school is a one and a half day, non-partisan training session that covers planning a voter mobilization effort, recruiting and working with volunteers, and developing leaders throughout the effort, among many other issues. The focus is on low-income communities, communities of color and immigrant communities.
"For me, training Native people is a totally different thing. Everyone in the room gets it; we don't have to talk in code. We can talk about the relationship between the sovereign nations and the US government. We have a similar sense of humor. When talking about the challenges of going door-to-door, the first thing [Native] people mention is dogs. It's not the same thing we hear in non-Indian communities," said Flanagan, laughing. "I'm combining my two passions: political action and my community. For so long people have talked about Native voter turnout. That's great, but now we need to get out and run [for office]. It was hard for me to do - to call yourself a great leader, it doesn't come naturally. All my life I was told you don't say that. But you're [running] for your community, your family, and your children. We haven't done voter engagement very long but in the next 10 years we'll see more people running. What's exciting is that people are starting to pay more attention to Indian country."
Flanagan was excited about the activity going on in the Native community. She said Leech Lake put sample ballots in employee's paychecks indicating candidates supported by the tribal council. She was also involved in training the Wellstone fellows.
"Nine young people of color went through training on electoral politics and are now working at different non-profit organizations. Laura Keys works out of our Wellstone Action office and is a Red Lake mom. She's amazing; what's more credible than an Indian mom talking to Indians," said Flanagan.
In addition to training, Flanagan is out in the community talking to people about voter education.
"We're reaching out, getting out the vote efforts, registering people. But, it's not enough just to register to vote, you have to actually go vote. And, we're trying to breakdown some of the barriers people have getting to the polls, such as childcare. Hopefully, they'll bring their kids to the polls so they can learn. We're taking barriers out of the way."
Alicia Smith also hopes people will bring children to the polls. As a board member of Kids Voting St. Paul, Smith encourages it as a way to educate a new generation of voters. Kids Voting St. Paul is part of Kids Voting USA, an organization that teaches students about democracy and citizenship. Students learn about voting by engaging in voting themselves. Many cities in Minnesota participate in the program.
"[Kids Vote St. Paul] provides students with a polling place at the adult polls so they can give their opinion. The student booths will be at every polling location in St. Paul. Their ballots have photos of the candidates, as well as their names. The idea is that, hopefully, kids will be excited about voting. They'll want to vote, and bring their parents to vote, at the polls. Plus, when they become 18, they'll want to carry on that habit of voting," said Smith, who is youth program manager at the American Indian Family Center in St. Paul.
There's also a curriculum available through Kids Voting St. Paul for teachers to use with their K-12 students. Students in grades 7-12 can vote on-line at www.kidsvotingstpaul.com using a password provided by their teacher.
"All 104 precincts in St. Paul will have volunteers to help students, who will have their own ballots, ballot box and voting booth. We have a lot of kids whose parents don't vote and this goes right by them. Half of the children in the US live in a household where no one has voted," said Bobbi Megard, Kids Vote St. Paul executive director. "In St. Paul, students will have the opportunity to vote six times before they are 18 years old. We bring voter registration cards to the schools to register seniors so they can register to vote when they turn 18."
Megard said the votes are counted on election night and reported to the media within 24 hours. Last year St. Paul had 8,000 students vote on-line. The first year, in 2000, there were only 50 on-line voters. This year they hope to have 20,000 on-line voters. It costs Kids Vote St. Paul $60,000 to run the program in an election year; however, there is no cost to schools to use the program.
"We're glad Alicia is involved. We need to be able to touch every part of our communities," said Megard.
Smith is also involved in St. Paul Indians in Action [SIA] as a co-chair. SIA, an organization of representatives from Indian agencies and community members in St. Paul, recently held a voter/candidate forum.
"We had the forum for a number of reasons: to let policy makers know we're in St. Paul; to give families an opportunity to step up to the mike and share their concerns; and to empower families and let them know they can participate in what's going on at the capitol. There was a good turnout," said Smith. " In the past we've had senators, representatives, school board candidates, city council members and have always had a great turnout. We don't have any more planned before the elections, but we plan to continue to register voters."
Alyssa Macy [Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon] was involved in the 2004 election in many areas, and on many levels.
"Out of the 2004 election a lot of good work was done by non-profits which was funded by foundations and tribes. At the end of the year a lot of assessment was done in the communities of color. Funders were going to do funding earlier on and at higher levels," said Macy, campaign director for Four Directions, a non-partisan organization that focuses on important races in Minnesota and Montana.
"The level of work is definitely not at the level of the 2004 elections. And, it's not only this community. We have to work on this year round. We still need to register voters, educate people. It's hard to raise money; we're having lots of conversations about the money. I've been frustrated. All the good work and all the energy from 2004, and we're back to the beginning of the 04 election cycle."
Macy said she sees a number of issues Native Americans look to when going to the polls: the threat to tribal sovereignty; methamphetamine in Indian country; the issue of voter's rights as evidenced by Native Vote Alliance's fight for the use of tribal IDs; and health disparities in the Native community.
Being involved with NCAI during the 2004 elections, Macy was part of the effort of bringing one million voters to the polls. While they came short of the number, there was a large increase in Native American voters going to the polls.
"This was a new concept to tribes - the management of a campaign. It was so new that they didn't have all the resources to do all they needed to do. It can't be said with certainty that we reached one million. However in some areas, numbers increased 50 percent to 150 percent. The most success we saw was in reservation communities. To organize in urban areas, it takes a lot more work. On the reservations or in the rural communities the community's in a specific area. In the urban areas you have to organize with other non-profits working with Native people," said Macy. "We did great in 04; we'll do quality work in 06; there's still lots of energy in Indian country. When we have people go to the polls, Indian Country wins."
Written by Daune Stinson, The Circle. All Rights Reserved.
