The sign entering Roosevelt County that signals the beginning of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick for the Daily Montanan)
Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux tribal members have filed a lawsuit against Valley and Roosevelt counties as well as Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen because of their refusal to establish satellite voting offices on the reservation, which is located miles from each county seat.
The lawsuit argues that the lengthy distance from the Fort Peck Reservation to both county seats, Glasgow (Valley) and Wolf Point (Roosevelt), create undue hardships on Native American voters. Furthermore, the tribal members said federal and state law is well established that the counties cannot favor one set of voters over another; in other words, the counties cannot provide services for one group of residents while denying it to others.
The groups have asked for satellite voter offices in Frazer (Valley) and Poplar (Roosevelt) to process voter registration, including late registration, as well as in-person voting. Both counties have been unwilling to open a satellite office with parallel days and hours that match the ones at each of the respective courthouses. Valley County has responded that it can open up a satellite office for limited time, but cannot staff one for longer because of a department that only has three employees.
“(The counties’) refusal to establish satellite office at Frazer, Montana, and Poplar, Montana, has a significant disparate impact on Indians’ voting power, denies the plaintiffs’ voting rights and is an apparent effort to dilute Indian voting strength,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiffs allege that this action, if allowed, would reinforce the long history of official racial discrimination in voting practiced in the State of Montana.”
The lawsuit, filed by Cherie Old Elk of Billings and Steven Sandmen of Hill City, S.D., asks Judge Yvonne Laird for an immediate order compelling both counties to open satellite locations in Poplar and Frazer for Fort Peck tribal members.
The lawsuit notes that Frazer is 30.6 miles from the county courthouse in Glasgow. The lawsuit asks that a Frazer office be established for the same days and hours as the Glasgow office, which includes in-person voter registration and in-person absentee voting, some of which have already begun.
The courthouse in Roosevelt County in Wolf Point is 21.4 miles from Poplar, and the suit asks the same days and hours for a Poplar location.
Much of the 26-page brief is an overview of the systemic and historic discrimination faced by Native American voters, with full voting rights and privileges not even being established until the 1970s. It also provides an overview of more recent court decisions, both federal and state, which have compelled county and state officials to provide equal access to services for disenfranchised locations. Some of those rulings require county officials to run calculations that take into consideration the demographic make-up of the counties, as well as the distance to polling locations.
None of Montana’s tribal headquarters are located in a county seat.
The lawsuit said Valley County Clerk and Recorder Marie Pippen told the Fort Peck Tribes on Sept. 11 that her office could not provide more than one day in Frazer because the office is staffed by her and two part-time employees. Later, on Sept. 20, Pippen said that the one-day office in Frazer would only be open 4.5 hours. She also said that all other in-person or election-day activities would be done at the county courthouse.
This is the crux of the legal argument in the brief: That voters closer to the county courthouse or not on the reservation are being treated differently. The lawsuit also claims that Valley County has failed to conduct an analysis required by state law that demonstrates whether a satellite office is needed and appropriate. The lawsuit said that analysis was due by Jan. 1 and should have been done in consultation with the tribes. The lawsuit said it had not been completed, nor had Pippen asked the Valley County Commissioners for additional funding for temporary staff for a satellite office.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit said that Roosevelt County only offers late registration and early voting to the county seat of Wolf Point, and it hasn’t considered a satellite office in Poplar.
Roosevelt Clerk and Recorder Tracy Miranda told the tribes on Sept. 20 that the county would offer no late registration and early voting outside of the county seat in Wolf Point.
“(The counties) have arbitrarily denied the plaintiffs’ request even though the Fort Peck Tribes has adhered to all published and/or enacted rules and regulations justifying the establishment of a polling location on the reservation,” the lawsuit states. “They have no legitimate reason for refusing the plaintiffs’ request.”