Kalle Benallie
ICT
Some Navajo voters had difficulty voting on Election Day (Nov. 5) in Apache County, Arizona. There were even issues with verifying signatures after they were cast. The Navajo Nation Department of Justice filed two lawsuits and held two public hearings to keep Apache County accountable.
The first lawsuit was filed on Election Day to give voters an additional two hours to vote in response to ballot printers failing in Apache County, long lines at the polls, emergency ballots running out and polling places not being open early.
It was granted, allowing nine polling places to remain open until 9 p.m. The nine polling places were Canyon De Chelly, Chinle, Dennehotso, Lukachukai, Fort Defiance, Lupton, Rock Point, St. Michaels, and Wheatfields.
Navajo Nation Council Delegate Andy Nez spoke about his experience voting in Fort Defiance, Arizona, at the first public hearing at Chinle Chapter House. He said after he voted in the tribal elections, he saw there were people still in line for 45 minutes to vote in the general election. Nez said he later talked to one of the voters at breakfast who said she was asked to write down who she was voting for and felt skeptical if her vote was counted.
He said he was in contact with about 15 voters who were updating him on the weather conditions, how long the wait was, and if the line had moved. He said it wasn’t until 2:30 p.m. when new voting machines were brought in.
He even went back to the voting line, answering questions, and giving out coffee. Temperatures were in the mid to low 40s in Chinle, Arizona.
“It just seemed like an issue that escalated as early as 7:30 in the morning and throughout the day wasn’t really resolved because we still had a long line of people coming up at seven o’clock (p.m.),” Nez said.
Teaira Francis, Navajo, was one of the voters in line that experienced voting issues in Apache County first hand: printers down, not enough ballots and not enough pens to name a few. Francis, who is full-time student at Navajo Technical University, helped incentivize voters earlier in the day with Arizona Native Votes as part of her internship in Dennehotso, Arizona. There she said an elderly man almost fell because of the uneven cement and poll workers were dressed and acting inappropriately.
Later, Francis got in line in Chinle around 6:30 p.m., waiting about an hour to vote. She said the Chinle and Dennehotso polling stations had no outdoor restrooms, no seating for elderly and Chinle was not well lit. She added there were also not sufficient poll workers who spoke Navajo to help translate for elderly Navajo speakers.
She said even some elders left the line to their cars to keep warm. When some tried going back in line, they were yelled at by a non-local election official.
“I heard him yelling and shouting at the people in the back and I heard people say, ‘Well, they were in line but we can’t keep them in line because they’re cold.’ So they told them to sit in the vehicle. Remember they were saying you can’t vote unless you’re still in line after 7 p.m. so I guess that’s what started the argument behind me. They almost fought each other,” Francis said.
She said voters were unsure which precinct they were in because the Chinle polling place divided voters by precinct: Chinle or Canyon de Chelly. But poll workers didn’t have a sufficient map to help voters know which precinct they were in, preventing some from asking because they would lose their spot in line. She added there was a mixup with her husband’s mail-in ballot that listed Canyon de Chelly as his voting precinct but he had only ever voted in Chinle.
“As an educated person who knows their research before this experience, this experience has motivated me more to go back and vote. But as a normal person if I wasn’t educated and got this specific training, I think this is really going to affect people’s experience by not wanting to go back to vote,” Francis said.
Nez has recommended to the Navajo Election Administration that they have larger facilities to be used as voting centers rather than chapter houses. It would especially be beneficial for voters to not wait outside. He recommends having a voting booth and clear explanations in the Navajo language of the propositions and other items. Additionally, he recommends the voting center have a walk through weeks before to ensure all voters can be accommodated and there will be a smooth voting process.
“Any right of any individual should be considered and should be planned effectively. So when it comes to voting we have a lot of community members out there who want to vote, who want to participate, who have every right to vote and I think it’s important to plan in a way that is effective and efficient for them to be able to vote,” Nez said.
The second lawsuit the Navajo Nation Department of Justice filed on Nov. 12 was meant to give Navajo voters additional time to cure their inconsistent signatures after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled against extending the ballot curing period statewide.
Ballot curing is the process of fixing issues with an absentee or mail-in ballot.
Approximately 175 Navajo voters had less than 24 hours to cure inconsistent signatures on their early ballots, the Navajo Nation Department of Justice said.
They cited in the lawsuit that Navajo voters faced obstacles like poor cellphone service, limited internet access and the need to travel long distances to the Apache County Recorder’s Office in St. Johns, Arizona.
The lawsuit was dismissed on Nov. 22. The judge said Apache County made reasonable and meaningful attempts to contact voters who needed to cure inconsistent signatures on their early ballots.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said he was disappointed in the outcome.
“Apache County disenfranchised Navajos voters in the 2024 general election. Despite this ruling, we will not be deterred from holding Apache County accountable for honoring all Navajo votes in future elections,” former Attorney General Ethel Branch added in a press release. The Navajo Nation Council fired Branch on Dec. 16 without stating any reason after she released a report exonerating Nygren of any wrongdoing related to sexual harassment claims made against him by Navajo Nation Vice President Richelle Montoya.
Jaynie Parrish, executive director of Arizona Native Vote, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization, said she was called in to help cure ballot signatures for early ballots in Apache County.
It proved to be a difficult process. There are no phone numbers or addresses on the ballots to help contact the voters. There are only names to hopefully make a recognition.
The Democratic Party helped to get lists and Branch tried as well to get an updated list. There were discrepancies in how many were on the list, who needed it, when did they start counting ballots and when they stopped.
“It was a lot of vagueness in terms of the number of people that actually needed to have their ballot cured,” Parrish said. “Our job was to try to locate any voter and every voter we could to get the ballot cured and encourage them to call the county elections office to verify signatures.”
Some people simply forget to sign the ballot or others perhaps change their signature from their drivers license and can’t be counted.
“There’s a problem within county election offices not getting to these time-sensitive measures for whatever reason,” she said.
She added many other voting groups plan to have people vote early to avoid any issues that come when voting in-person the day of.
In fact, Parrish’s organization helped check ballots and voter registrations at Protect the Sacred’s Walk to the Polls event on Oct. 12 in Arizona, three weeks before Election Day, with celebrities Mark Ruffalo, Wilmer Valderrama and Jade Cara Meyers participating.
Protect the Sacred, a nonprofit organization focused on empowering Native youth, coordinated with Apache County’s Fort Defiance Road Yard – the ballot dropoff site at the end of the walk – weeks before the event to ensure the dropoff site, which is one of 12 dropoff locations in the county, was open so registered voters could drop off their ballots. Apache County agreed to do so.
However, minutes before the walk started at Tséhootsooí Primary Learning Center, Protect the Sacred received a call that the Fort Defiance Road Yard was short staffed and couldn’t be open.
“Voting should not be this hard. Voting should not be this difficult for people but I think we put all these guidelines, policies and new state mandates. When you start compiling with shorter hours and less people, it all comes together and makes it harder,” Parrish said.