Dear USET/USET SPF Family,
This email is a reminder that the White House Native American Voting Rights Steering Group will host a regional Tribal consultation with the Eastern, Rocky Mountain, Eastern Oklahoma, and Midwest Regions, tomorrow, July 28, 2021 from 2:00pm to 4:00pm ET. To register for the July 28th consultation, please click here.
To view the Tribal consultation agenda, please click here, and for a full list of the scheduled regional Tribal consultations, please click here. Written comments will be accepted from October 25 to November 12, 2021 and can be submitted to consultation@bia.gov. If you have any questions, please contact Tracy Goodluck at Tracy.L.Goodluck@who.eop.gov.
Additionally, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) is aiding Tribal Nations with drafting testimony for the consultation. NARF has provided the following examples of testimony they are willing to aid with:
- Difficulty in accessing polling places and registration.
- Difficulty voting by mail (for example due to lack of residential mail delivery and distance to P.O. boxes).
- Lack of residential addressing affecting registration and voting.
- Requesting a point person at U.S. Postal Service locations to be familiar with Tribal addressing.
- Requesting federal agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service, and others to provide registration opportunities for Tribal citizens.
- The capacity of 638 Compacting Tribes to administer voter registration at federally funded programs (with additional funding).
- Language assistance needs.
- The impact of poverty on voting (e.g., lack of vehicle access and cost of gas, overcrowding of homes, and homelessness, or near-homelessness).
- Hostility or racism faced at any point during voting process, attempts to run for office, or at border towns where polling places are located.
If you would like assistance from NARF in drafting testimony for the Native Voting Rights consultation please contact Jacqueline De León at jdeleon@narf.org, and Robert Waldroup at lawclerk3@narf.org.
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