Seth A. Richardson

srichardson@rgj.com

Updated Sept. 7 at 5 p.m.:

A pair of Native American tribes filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the state of Nevada and Washoe and Mineral counties after being denied voter registration sites and polling places on tribal lands.

The basis of the suit is voter disenfranchisement of a protected class under the Voting Rights Act as well as equal protection of the law under the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs — the Pyramid Lake Paiutes and the Walker River Paiutes — argue that a lack of access to voter registration and polling places on the reservation has hampered Native American turnout.

Native American registration and turnout is historically low, mainly due to access and other barriers, according to Bret Healy, a consultant for the Native American advocacy group Four Directions, who is overseeing the lawsuit. He’s handled similar requests in other states and said that if they are granted, turnout tends to increase dramatically, sometimes as much as 130 percent.

“It’s because there’s more obstacles,” Healy said. “It’s not an equal access to the ballot box.”

Read the lawsuit here:

Sanchez et al v. Cegavske et al

The tribes sent letters in early August to the counties as well as the secretary of state’s office outlining their requests. The Pyramid Lake Paiutes requested eight days of voter registration, early voting from Oct. 22 through Nov. 4 and an Election Day site, all located at the tribal capital of Nixon. The Walker River Paiute Tribe requested six days of voter registration and early voting from Oct. 22 through Nov. 4, all located at the tribal capital of Schurz.

The counties denied their requests, citing the short timeframe before the Nov. 8 election. Washoe County Registrar Luanne Cutler said the requests were valid and cost wasn’t an issue, but it was logistically unfeasible so close to the Nov. 8 election date. The site would require three people to staff the polling places as well as a machine for the voting itself. The county would also have to consider maintenance if the machine were to malfunction.

“We’re more than happy to talk with them once this election is over to provide them with another service they might be more comfortable with,” Cutler said. “We’re always happy to have that conversation with any of our more remote areas, but it’s simply too close to the election to try and make that type of a change.”

Cutler offered volunteer training for voter registration and both counties cited multiple other ways for people in remote areas to vote, including mail-in ballots, but Healy said those methods were unreliable compared to having professional-grade voter registration and polling sites. The tribes were also open to deputizing people from the reservation as election officials, mitigating some of the costs and logistics, Healy said.

“The overarching view is this: it’s not enough to say we’ve given these Indians one way to register and one way to vote,” he said. “It should be equal. If the Indians have two ways to vote and the white people have eight ways to vote, that’s not equal. That’s no different than saying we’re only going to have Election Day and the Indians get three hours and the majority population gets 12 because that’s all we can afford out on the reservation.”

Mineral County Clerk-Treasurer Chris Nepper said the request had plenty of merit but also cited logistical issues as well as cost with the upcoming election as reasons for denying the claim.

“There’s a time where you can request certain things to be happening in the election like polling places,” he said. “This came in just a few weeks ago and literally we’re just two months away from the general election. There was just no way we could accommodate this quickly.”

The Yerington Paiutes also requested a voter registration site, early voting and an Election Day polling place, but have not received an answer from Lyon County.

With the current sites available, the Pyramid Lake Paiutes have a nearly 90-mile round trip to the closest early polling place at Legends at Sparks. The Election Day site is closer in Wadsworth at around a 30-mile round trip.

Pyramid Lake Tribal Chairman Vinton Hawley said that setup is not equitable to native people, who are often poorer, elderly or simply lack transportation.

“We’re a rural community and some of the tribal members don’t have the resources to travel the round trip distance,” he said. “A lot of the tribal members are elderly, they’re not able to drive. They don’t have the funds to purchase gas and go back and forth.”

The Walker River Paiutes have around a 70-mile round trip to the courthouse in Hawthorne to register. There is an Election Day site on the reservation in Schurz.

Walker River Tribal Chairman Bobby Sanchez gave a similar assessment to Hawley’s, adding there’s been fundamental discrimination against Native Americans for decades, making some weary of leaving the tribal lands.

“A lot of our people, we need the transportation. We need to be comfortable,” he said. “If we had our own polling place here, that would make a big difference.”

Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske’s office declined to comment on the pending litigation.

Seth A. Richardson covers politics for the Reno Gazette-Journal. Like him on Facebook here or follow him on Twitter at @SethARichardson. Reporter Mike Higdon contributed to this report.