Even as efforts have been made over the years to give voting rights to minorities in America, particularly the Indian Americans, new voting restrictions across the country are eroding these achievements. This article published by The Hill is by Frederick E. Hoxie and Dennis Aftergut. Here is an excerpt:
Today, we occupy one nation — “theirs” and “ours” — one people under a single national flag. Admittedly, native peoples were often recruited by force to participate in the United States. But they were also persuaded by leaders like Thomas Jefferson, who invited them to “unite yourselves with us, join our Great Councils and form one people with us and we shall all be Americans.”
Sadly, foes of Native American rights undercut such promises — and democracy.
These efforts endure. Montana Republicans’ new vote restriction legislation could easily suppress the Indian vote. The new measure forbids an individual from delivering another person’s absentee ballot to the polls. That delivery method is essential for home-bound voters in places without mail service — the situation on many Montana reservations and others across the country. And many elderly Indians living on reservations do not have cars.
Read the full article here
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