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m. Fort Belknap provides contributions to the Snake Butte Voter Coalition, which is a separate group not affiliated with the Tribe that hires temporary organizers to perform ballot collection on the Tribe's behalf. 09/08/20 Trial Tr. (Cuts the Rope) at 142:21-143:5; 143:13-145: I 1. n. Fort Belknap contributes approximately $3,000 in election years to the Snake Butte Voter Coalition. 09/08/20 Trial Tr. (Cuts the Rope) at 136:23-137:3; Pl. Ex. 97. In 2016, Fort Belknap contributed $1,520 to this Coalition for similar work. Pl. Ex. 98. o. Fort Belknap provides staffrng, building space, wireless intemet connectivity, and security for altemate election cites. 09108120 Trial Tr. (Cuts the Rope) at 134:1015; 136:7-15. p. Organizational Plaintiffs collect ballots on the Fort Belknap Reservation. Agreed Fact No. 44. 19. Voting by Mail in Indian Country. a. One barrier to voting is the mail system on Indian reservations. Pl. Ex. 23 at 5/Stip. Ex. 4. b. Many Native Americans living on rural reservations lack home mail service. Agreed Fact Nos. 24, 28, 33, 42. c. There are limited mail routes and drop-off mail locations on rural reservations. Pl. Ex.'s 114, tf 4; 118, fl 4; 09/08120 Trial Tr. (Bear Don't Walk) at 169:6-25; 09/09/20 Trial Tr. (McCool) at 338:19-339:14. ll see also

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Western Native Voice v. Stapleton

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether the Ballot Interference Prevention Act violates the Plaintiff’s right to vote, right to free speech, right to association, and due process.

Alleged Acts: Montana presents unique challenges as the fourth largest state in terms of land size, but the third least densely populated. Consequently, most voters utilize the absentee voting procedure. Montana also is home to seven Reservations, intersecting with sixteen different counties. These Reservations each have unique challenges to voting including a lack of home mail delivery, transportation that does not run on a regular route, taking administrative leave to drive in groups to polling stations, limited mail routes and drop-off locations, lack of convenient P.O. boxes, and mail delays. Further, many Native American Reservations have difficulties traveling due to high poverty levels, lack of working vehicles, car insurance, licenses to drive off of reservations, or money for gasoline to travel to polling stations. Some Native Americans on Montana Reservations have voted through the collection and conveyance of their ballot to local election offices by community members and third parties.

Summary: The Defendants failed to provide evidence that the state of Montana has or ever had a problem with unsolicited ballot collection or ballot interference. Thus, because the Ballot Prevention Act interferes with fundamental rights it is required to meet strict scrutiny. The Ballot Interference Prevention Acts limits the number of ballots per collector to six ballots and the court determined that this did not meet a compelling state interests, lack basis, and the voter were uninformed of this limitation at the time of voting — ultimately failing a strict scrutiny test.

Conclusion: The court found in favor of the Plaintiffs stating that the Ballot Interference Prevention Action violated the right to free speech, right to vote, right to association, and right to due process.

Legal Issue(s)

Elections as a Fundamental Right
Indigenous Persons
Vote Verification and Transmission

Applicable Law(s): Ballot Inference Prevention Act

Region: Americas

Country: United States of America

Language of Decision

English

Court: Trial Court

Election Type: Review of law

Date of decision: Sep 25, 2020

Geolocation

Latitude: 46.55684320353664

Longitude: -112.0529752389978

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

Western Native Voice v. Stapleton.pdf
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Election Judgments - IFES

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Western Native Voice v. Stapleton

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