In a win for voting
rights advocates, North Dakota agreed to a binding consent decree
to ensure that Native Americans can vote without an ID that shows
a residential addresses.
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Voters
in Cannon Ball, N.D., filled out their ballots for the midterm
election on Nov. 6, 2018.Credit...Hilary Swift for The New
York Times
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North Dakota officials have reached a settlement with two Native
American tribes over the state's restrictive voter identification
law.
The settlement, announced
on Thursday, includes a legally binding consent decree to ensure
that Native American voters are not disenfranchised. It is a major
victory for the tribes and pending formal approval by tribal
councils will resolve two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality
of the law, which requires voters to show an ID with a residential
address.
Many Native American reservations do not use traditional addresses,
and the law which the Republican-controlled North Dakota
Legislature passed shortly after a Democrat, Heidi Heitkamp, won
a close Senate race in 2012 with strong support from Native Americans
meant they could not vote with an ID that listed a post office
box as an address. Ms. Heitkamp was defeated by Kevin Cramer, a
Republican, in 2018.
Under the new consent decree, the North Dakota secretary of state
will be required to ensure that Native Americans can vote even if
they don't have a residential address, or if they have one but don't
know what it is. (In many cases, buildings have an official address
in county records but no signage, and tribal members have never
used the address.)
The decree will be enforced by a federal court order and will require
the state to take specific steps to inform voters of the changes
and train poll workers.
In this year's elections, Native American voters will be allowed
to mark their homes on a map, and it will be the state's responsibility
to use that information to verify their official addresses and make
sure their ballots are counted. The state will also be required
to provide the official addresses to the voters and their tribes,
which could then issue tribal identification for use in future elections.
This formalizes an arrangement that some
tribes used in the 2018 midterms, when a federal court allowed
the voter ID law to take effect less than two months before Election
Day. Tribal officials were stationed at polling places on reservations
to issue handwritten identification on the spot, using ad hoc addresses,
to voters who pointed out their homes on a map.
The secretary of state, Al Jaeger, will also work with the North
Dakota Department of Transportation to issue free IDs on every reservation
before each statewide election. And he agreed to "work in good faith"
to secure funding to reimburse tribal governments up to $5,000 apiece
per election for the administrative costs of issuing addresses and
IDs.
Mr. Jaeger's office has announced
a public hearing on emergency administrative rules to carry
out the state's new obligations.
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