HELENA, Mont. -- Native Americans are facing a series of barriers to voting in Montana's upcoming primary election. Due to COVID-19, all Montana counties are providing a vote-by-mail option.

Marci McLean, executive director of Western Native Voice, said this presents the first challenge for Native Americans on reservations - the overwhelming majority of whom have their mail delivered to a post office box. Because of the virus, McLean said, there are health risks with giving folks rides to ballot drop-offs or their post office, which can be miles away.

In addition, the new Ballot Interference Protection Act will prevent groups such as Western Native Voice from delivering more than six ballots at a time, curtailing a common practice of ballot collection in Native American communities.

"The Ballot Interference Protection Act and COVID and vote by mail - it's a triple whammy on our communities and the right and access to vote," McLean said.

McLean said her group picked up more than 800 ballots in the 2018 election. Ballots will be mailed on Friday for the June 2 primary.

The Ballot Interference Protection Act was passed by voters in 2018. Western Native Voice and Montana Native Vote are challenging it in court, arguing the law disenfranchises Native Americans.

Jacqueline De Leon is an attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, which is representing the groups along with ACLU of Montana. She said voter engagement groups on Native American reservations rely heavily on ballot collectors - who go to folks' homes throughout a community, pick up around 100 ballots and drop them off.

"And that's because they're putting on a ton of miles on their car, they're driving really long distances to get those ballots. And that keeps the person who is trying to vote from having to travel those distances themselves because they're just prohibitively far," De Leon said.

McLean's group is waiting to hear if a federal judge will block the law. In the meantime, she said her organization is implementing a robust digital campaign to get out the vote and is thinking of this primary as a trial run for November.

"We're all hands on deck for this primary election just in case it's the same in the general and we have to learn from this one how to fine-tune things for the general election," McLean said.

Support for this reporting was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.




get more stories like this via email

With the election six weeks away, concern is building about attempts to intimidate voters at the polls - so, lawmakers are taking action at the state and federal levels.

On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the PEACE Act, which makes California the first state in the nation to state explicitly that openly carrying a gun in or near a polling place constitutes illegal harassment.

Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the Voting Rights Program for the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice, said the measure is important.

"It represents some really commonsense principles. All voters, all election workers, should be able to participate and run our democracy free from intimidation. And visible guns around our elections are intimidating," he said.

A recent survey of election workers from the Brennan Center found that 40% report being subject to threats, abuse, or harassment.

On Wednesday, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., introduced a bill to ban open carry of firearms in polling places nationwide - noting the country has a long history of scare tactics on Election Day.

"There's individuals out there, stoked by partisan rhetoric and false narratives about election fraud, that have taken it upon themselves to either discourage at a minimum, or sometimes outright intimidate people into not letting their voice be heard in the democratic process," Padilla said.

Both political parties plan to have poll watchers present this year. The Brennan Center has set up a hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE for people to report any efforts to intimidate voters or election workers.


get more stories like this via email

Illinois voters have several ways to cast their ballot in the upcoming election, whether by mail, in person or early voting.

The Illinois Policy Institute, a political watchdog, reported 2022's general election produced the second-highest voter turnout in a midterm year in 25 years.

Matt Dietrich, public information officer for the Illinois State Board of Elections, wants voters to observe important deadlines for registering to vote. For unregistered voters, he advised there is still time to change their status.

"Voter registration never closes until the polls close on Election Day," Dietrich pointed out. "You can get registered from now right up through and even on November 5th. The online voter registration stays open until 11:59 pm, October 20th."

Voter inquiries can be answered through an online portal on the board's website, elections.il.gov.

Beginning Oct. 9, unregistered voters wanting in-person voting can do so at any early voting location. Dietrich added they will have to cast their early vote ballot at the time of registration.

Two forms of verifiable identification are needed, one which reflects who you are and the other, your voting residence. If you have recently moved to Illinois from another state, an unexpired out-of-state driver's license is accepted. A piece of government mail sent to your residence, a bank statement, or a pay stub with your voting residence is also sufficient.

Another popular choice among Illinoisans is to vote by mail. There was a "slight uptick of 10%," Dietrich reported, even before the pandemic in 2020. He added 2 million people tried it for the first time and deemed the process as safe, convenient and trackable.

"We and all the local election authorities really pushed voting by mail for safety reasons," Dietrich explained. "In the end, we had one-third of the total votes in 2020, cast by mail, about one-third cast early in person and one-third cast on Election Day in person."

Dietrich said in 2022, voting by mail slightly exceeded the number of voters who were voting early in person. He recommends residents wanting to cast mail-in ballots request their ballot far before the Oct. 31 deadline.

New Mexico volunteers will test the "butterfly effect" this Saturday as they perform small actions meant to produce monumental change.

Civic and nonprofit groups have enlisted volunteers to help plant food for monarch butterflies and other pollinators in the Bosque, a cottonwood forest bordering the Rio Grande. Organizers said the area's lush grass meadows and native milkweeds make it the perfect launchpad to expand pollinator habitat.

Emily Rees, Southwest restoration ecologist at the Institute for Applied Ecology, said teams will plant more than a thousand native perennial plants grown from wild-collected seeds.

"The overall project is 16 sites along a 200-mile stretch of the Rio Grande from north of Taos all the way down to Socorro," Rees outlined. "We are planting seven of those this year, and then we'll do the additional nine next year."

Rees pointed out New Mexico's 300-mile Bosque, which means "woods" or "forest" in Spanish, provides an oasis of valuable resources for animals and plants living in an otherwise arid Southwest habitat. To prepare for the event, the City of Albuquerque has been selectively removing invasive, non-native tree species in the planting area.

Monarch butterfly populations are declining in the U.S. and worldwide because of habitat loss.

Rees believes there is still a lot to learn about the Rio Grande's role in their New Mexico migration.

"It is very charismatic," Rees observed. "People really recognize monarchs but by restoring the habitat for monarchs we're also able to enhance that habitat for other pollinators as well."

Monarchs are not currently on the federal Endangered Species list but by one estimate their numbers declined in 2024 by 30% from the previous year. The Xerces Society said the overwintering population of western monarchs remains at approximately 5% of its size in the 1980s.


get more stories like this via email