Left Wing Group Running Newspaper Ads in North Dakota Looking for Native Americans Struggling to Vote
Frank White Bull, a Standing Rock Sioux council member, shoes his tribal identification card, complete with physical address, in North Dakota, Oct. 22, 2018. Under a new law, North Dakotans cannot vote without a residential address; Native Americans, who largely rely on post office boxes, are working to overcome what they see as a clear attempt at voter suppression. (Kristina Barker/The New York Times)
A national furor has erupted over North Dakota’s voter ID laws. Specifically the requirement that to vote in our state, which doesn’t even require voters to register, you must have identification which includes a current residential address.
This requirement was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year, in a 6-2 decision that included support from Clinton and Obama appointees, but this isn’t really about the policy.
It’s about politics. The Sturm und Drang is a get-out-the-vote effort for Senator Heidi Heitkamp who has been behind in the polls all year and was struggling with disillusionment in Indian country.
But how bad is the problem, really? Well, CNN says they spent a lot of time in North Dakota working with the tribes and the activists, and they say they couldn’t find anyone who will be unable to cast ballot on election day:
.@CNN: “We spent a good deal of time in North Dakota, on the phone working with activists and tribes, trying to find even one person who will not be able to vote because of this new law.
And we couldn’t find that person.” #NDSen pic.twitter.com/aIh0C5ZDdV
— ND Republican Party (@NDGOP) October 28, 2018
And then there’s this ad in the Turtle Mountain Times (a publication owned by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa) from the far-left group ThinkProgress which is asking for Native American veterans, specifically, who are worried about whether they’ll be able to vote.
Why just veterans? Who knows. Probably because this is about politics, not truth, and veterans play better in politics:
A SAB reader who is a member of the tribe sent me the clipping. “This ad ran in yesterday’s edition of the Turtle Mountain Times,” he told me. “They are really trying hard to find someone they can hold up to the spotlights and cameras as a disenfranchised Indian.”
He also sent the post card below he received from a “fellow voter in New York City.”
“In among the ELEVEN full sized flyers I received last week, unsolicited, from the Heidi/Dems (obviously aimed at us Indians) was this card allegedly from ‘Julia’ in New York City,” he told me. “I don’t know any Julia’s, much less any from NYC; she’s certainly NOT my friend.”
I’ve redacted the specific address information from the card.
