Laura McCauley at Common Dreams writes—Ahead of Election, Native Americans Rise Up Against Repressive Voting Laws:
An in-depth report published by Reuters on Tuesday highlights revisions to a North Dakota law that "eliminated a provision that had allowed people without proper identification...to vote if they were recognized by a poll worker or if they signed an affidavit swearing to their identity."
In that state, which holds its Democratic primary on June 7, American Indian and Alaska Native peoples comprise the largest minority—just over five percent compared to less than one percent of the national household population, according to the state census (pdf).
As many tribal IDs don't include addresses, nor can those living on impoverished reservations afford to pay for updated identification, these restrictions "disproportionately burden Native American voters in North Dakota," argues a lawsuit (pdf) filed in January by the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund (NARF). [...]
NARF is expected to file a motion by June 30 requesting that the court invalidate the changes to the ID law ahead of November's election, Reuters reports, as the state's growing Native American population may have the ability to "tip the balance" in key races.
"The Native American vote is not big enough to flip a safe Republican state such as North Dakota into the Democrat column in this year’s presidential election," notes Reuters, "but Native Americans are a growing proportion of the population and a majority in some counties where increased voter turn-out in recent years has tipped the balance in some congressional races."
Indeed, since the U.S. Supreme Court dismantled key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2013, native groups have flagged voting-related problems in 17 states via litigation or tribal diplomacy with local officials, according to a recent survey by Indian Country Today Media Network (ICTMN). [...]
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2006—Cheers: Wednesday:
If I may be so bold as to suggest that yesterday's news sucked …
Wall Street tanked (again), over a thousand more U.S. troops are going into Iraq to help Bush turn more corners, the Pentagon admits the insurgency is going to get worse, Afghanistan is falling apart, the death toll from the Indonesian earthquake is up to nearly six thousand, consumer confidence dropped in May, they didn't find Jimmy Hoffa (dammit...he's still got my watch), home foreclosures are on the rise, there's an investigation underway regarding a massacre of civilians in Iraq by our guys, a major car company is recalling a million vehicles because of faulty steering wheels (enjoy your commute this morning, Toyota owners), the Supreme Court squished federal whistleblowers under its thumb, a brick nearly went through our TV when Bill O'Reilly accused Jack Murtha last night of wanting to "cut and run," plus...
One year after her disappearance, Natalie Holloway astonishingly remains the #1 story in the media universe (now that American Idol has temporarily moved off the front page).
And if that wasn't bad enough, now we learn that global warming is going to cause a worldwide outbreak of mutant poison ivy.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin rounds up weekend news. GOP eats their Trump sandwiches, even as his insanity mounts. Has he destroyed the interview as a journalistic tool? ICYMI: another mass shooting. How have Dem contests actually ended in the superdelegate era?
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