Native Americans & Voting

Throughout U.S. history, there has been an ongoing debate about whether racism is a thing of the past or still takes place today. I think everyone can agree, especially after the recent presidential election, that discrimination is still very relevant. In 2014, four Lakota residents (who live on a reservation) filed a lawsuit because their constitutional right to vote was violated.  In 2017, why do we STILL have problems with people participating in elections, solely because of their race?!

In response to this issue, I think that the public’s general response only discussed to a small degree. The fact that Native Americans have to travel twice the distance than White Americans to voting polls amazes me. Jackson County Auditor Vicki Wilson declined to comment on the details of the lawsuit. I think that this proves that the county is discriminating against Native Americans by not wanting them to vote, as well as not showing any effort to fix this government form of discrimination. However, South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant stated that ‘all of the county’s residents have the same access to voter registration and absentee voting as every South Dakotan,’ but Native Americans who live on reservations made in very clear in the article, that this isn’t the truth. Voting should be  ‘hassle-free’ and ‘easily-accessible’ especially to the ethnic group that was in the United States first.