We all know how critical North Dakota is for the Dems to have a chance of taking back the Senate. As a couple of diaries have posted, the illegitimate Supreme Court just ruled in favor of blatant voter suppression in the state by holding that Native Americans, who don’t have street addresses on reservations, just post office addresses, have to now have personal addresses to be able to vote.
Native Americans are key supporters of Heidi Heitkamp, which is, of course, why the suppressors came up with their latest blight on democracy. But Native Americans aren’t rolling over for these Soviet-style tactics and are determined that every person eligible to vote, now more than ever, can cast a ballot. And we ought to be doing everything we can to help them.
Tonight, Rachel Maddow interviewed O. J. Semans, who is on the board of the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Health Board in South Dakota and who is co-executive director of Four Directions, a voting rights group that is spearheading a drive to get addresses for voters that meet the latest ID demand with only 22 days left until the election.
Semans said, “It won’t be easy. We’re scrambling to get this done.” He estimates that the voter ID requirement could affect 5,000 to 10,000 Native Americans. Heidi Heitcamp won her last election by less than 3,000 votes.
As Semans pointed out, “Tribes are sovereign nations. They can create their addresses.” And that’s the good news. He and his group are working with the tribes to get everyone an address that can meet the new voter ID requirement. He wants to have a tribal official at every polling station. People can come in and look at a map of the district and point out where they live and be given an address. That’s going to take resources.
I know we’ve been donating our heads off, but supporting this effort to enfranchise these voters may be one of the most critical actions in the campaign—for the Native Americans robbed of their votes, for our chances to take the Senate (and there’s still a chance), and to fight back against the obscene, ho-hum way that Republicans disenfranchise with impunity. Why isn’t voter suppression the lead story every night on every news program and the top headline in every newspaper?
How can we get the tribes and Heidi Heitkamp the resources to make these new ID’s happen? I just learned from Kat Snyder below that you can make a donation to CrowdPac here. Here’s a link to the Heitkamp campaign.
These broad-daylight, democracy-thieves aren’t going to get away with it again, if we all pull together and help the folks on the ground in North Dakota do what supposedly what people have fought and died to protect: the right to vote. Thanks!
UPDATE: As of 6 pm Pacific time, the total raised on the Four Directions CrowdPac page is $43,062, 87% of the goal of $50,000. I know many of you have also contributed to the Native American Rights Fund, which has a $25,000 matching offer for $25,000 raised. And many of you have also donated to Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign. Great job, everyone! Let’s keep it going. We’re not going to let vote riggers get away with it anymore. No more impunity!