Systematic Republican Disenfranchisement Efforts Against Native Americans Underway In South Dakota

Friday, Digby, Amato and I trucked over to a get-together Norman Lear was throwing for a branch of People for the American Way, the Young Elected Officials Network, which supports elected leaders ages 35 and under as they define issues, develop solutions and respond to the needs of their communities. 

You may remember that two years ago DWT readers helped South Dakota candidate Kevin Killer raise enough money to compete successfully in his race for a seat in the South Dakota legislature. When I ran into Kevin Friday at the event, he told me it had been an excellent two years and the Republicans aren't even bothering to run someone against him this year. That's great news, and Kevin is spending a lot of time helping elect other progressives. Here's a video he made talking about the challenges facing rural districts like his:



Yesterday I got a note from another South Dakota progressive candidate we've met before, Ben Nesselhuf, who's running for Secretary of State. Remember? Ben mentioned some serious right-wing disenfranchisement efforts against Native Americans going on in his state, and I recognized the area as part of Kevin Killer's district.

In the latest instance of decades of blatant racially motivated voter disenfranchisement in South Dakota, Republican officials at the state and county level have begun the process of limiting Native American access to the ballot. Shannon County, home of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, faces the prospect of no early voting access this fall. Worse still, there remains the very real possibility of no Election Day voting at all in Shannon County.

There is little ambiguity to what has transpired in South Dakota in the last month. According to the 2000 Census, Shannon County is 94.2% Native American. Lying entirely on reservation land, Shannon County is the second poorest county in the United States. In the 2004 and 2008 elections, Shannon County has been the highest Democratic performing county in the country. In 2008, Barack Obama received 88.6% of the vote in Shannon County. Because of the rural nature of the county, it has traditionally seen much higher levels of absentee and early voting than the South Dakota averages.

Because Shannon County is one of two unorganized counties in South Dakota, elections have been administered by neighboring Fall River County. This has been standard procedure for over thirty years. Frustrated and seeing a political opportunity, however, Republican officials at the state and county level decided to act. In August, county officials in Fall River County made it clear they would resign if asked to administer the same early voting opportunities in Shannon County that every other county receives. When they were formally asked to do so on September 3, 2010, a number of county officials subsequently resigned, leaving no one to run the election in Shannon County.

The next Thursday, September 9, Republican Secretary of State Chris Nelson met with officials from both Shannon and Fall River Counties. As reported by the Rapid City Journal, Nelson arbitrarily declared that Shannon County had only until the next Monday, September 13, to resolve the situation. In addition to only giving Shannon County two business days to respond, Nelson repeatedly suggested that there was nothing that the state could do to help. Brazenly, Nelson told those gathered at the meeting, “You all have a huge challenge on your hands.” Nelson, the chief elections officer in the state and a former Republican candidate for Congress, is prepared to sit idly by and watch an entire county be disenfranchised.

As of now, there is no plan in place for how any elections are to take place in Shannon County, South Dakota. Voting rights groups believe the turnout for the 2010 cycle in Shannon County could be as high as 5,000 votes, a sizeable percentage of the state vote in South Dakota. Because many of those votes will be for Democrats, South Dakota Republicans are willing to take on lengthy legal fights to protect [the decision], because they know it can’t be resolved before election day.

None of this is new. For the past several years, South Dakota has openly flouted the 1965 Voting Rights Act, considering fair and equal access to the ballot an unnecessary hassle that the state need not worry about. This has led to numerous lawsuits, all of which have been lost by the state. The problem is that by the time the court resolves the issues, the damage has been done.

You can imagine that Ben isn't taking this sitting down-- nor did it come as a surprise to him. He's running on a platform of fair and equal elections in South Dakota in every county. He feels it's the obligation of the state to make sure that every county has the resources and facilities they need to have early voting and smoothly run elections. On September 8, Nesselhuf was quoted in Indian Country Today saying that he considers the way the state has run previous elections as “systematic disenfranchisement.”

His far right Republican opponent has nothing to say about this, although he keeps screaming about voter fraud and sounds like ACORN is sending agents to South Dakota homes to steal elections and children. For Republican officials in South Dakota, every time a Native American votes, it’s “fraud.”

Here's Ben's website, and you can donate to his campaign directly through ActBlue. This video is a little light for the seriousness of the topic. Hopefully it will help Ben get elected so he can take care of it.

A KILLER VICTORY! YOUNG NATIVE AMERICAN PLACES FIRST IN SOUTH DAKOTA HOUSE PRIMARY

I'm in DC and tonight I went to events for two Blue America endorsees, Andrew Rice (OK) and Howard Shanker (AZ). My plan was to go over to People For the American Way and then go see Darcy Burner (WA). But there was a tornado and it was like someone with a water tanker hovered about me and emptied it on my head-- and in my shoes. I'll see Darcy another time. But the folks over at PFAW were jubilant. The two Young Elected Officials who had races last night won. One Isadore Hall, is a friend of mine and after I saw a glowing endorsement in the L.A. Times I knew he had a lock on the race. He had been widely expected to win anyway... and he won big and will go from being an outstanding member of the Compton City Council to being a dedicated progressive in the California Assembly. The other winner, Kevin Killer, is someone I had never met.

Yesterday, while older South Dakotans were giving Hillary her last victory of the presidential race, a state known for electing conservative-leaning Democrats started a political career rolling for someone who is far from a conservative-leaning Democrat. Like Isadore Hall, Kevin Killer is dedicated to being a public servant in the best traditions of democracy, serving the community, protecting civil liberties and standing up for regular folks. Kevin, a Native American, won first place in a multi-member State House primary by just 5 votes. Kevin's District is unlike any other you've ever seen, and that's why I want to ask you to help him win the general election in November.

District 27 encompasses Bennett, Haakon, Jackson, and Shannon Counties and sprawls over 6,961 square miles (map)! That's more land than Delaware and Connecticut combined! It's larger than Hawaii on its own, and just slightly smaller than all of New Jersey! Shannon County itself is entirely inside the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and is the second poorest county in the country with a per-capita income of just $6,286. Wikipedia also taught me that it has the interesting distinction of having the highest percentage of Democratic votes for President in the 2004 election of any county in the US (85%). Across the four counties unemployment is estimated to hover at above 50%.

So why Kevin Killer? He's a young, inspiring, and selfless leader who has dedicated his life to improving the world for others. He can't win without our help. Against advice from friends and campaign volunteers, he spends his own scant savings on gas to fill up his car to travel the district--an unsustainable practice for such a large area. To win, he'll have to do targeted mailing in addition to the interpersonal campaigning that is so necessary in a district like his. That's why we're asking you to either help him fill up his car with gas or help him send out some mailings.

Kevin is an Oglala Lakota Tribal Member and lives in Pine Ridge. Unlike more than 80% of young people in his area, he went on to college in Denver where he studied at Metro State College and briefly at the University of Colorado. The death of his father in 1999 brought him back home before he finished and at 28, going to school part-time, he's only now become a Senior at Oglala Lakota Tribal College.

To support himself, he works at a burial assistance program with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. All the while, he found time to nurture an extensive progressive resume. He's a former canvasser for Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth, Senator Tim Johnson, as well as Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

In 2006, Kevin was chosen as one of the first Native Americans to take part in People For the American Way's Young People For Fellowship program. As a Senior Fellow and participant in a campaign training program called the Front Line Leaders Academy, he stood for office as "President of Young People For," a fictional office designed to test his lessons learned. In January of 2007, he was elected by a body of over 500 Fellows from across the country.

Now he's also well equipped to run for real office. In the past year, Kevin toured colleges as a trainer with Wellstone Action and participated in the 2007 INDN's List Campaign Camp in California. He's ready to campaign but he's also ready with progressive solutions. With his extensive travel and training, Kevin understands his district's needs and is running because he cares about his friends, family, neighbors, classmates, and elders-- and he wants to make a difference.

Kevin's most important issue during his campaign is to expand access to education. At Oglala Lakota College he is the Student Senate President and also the Student Representative on the Board of Trustees. In late 2007, Kevin joined the National Indian Education Association as a Student Representative. In District 27, his goal as a Representative is to develop initiatives to improve graduation rates and facilitate State and Tribal coordination through the Tribal Education Departments National Assembly.

Kevin also wants to bring new alternative energy projects like Wind Farms to create Green Collar jobs, provide income and cheaper, sustainable energy to the Reservation, and to lead South Dakota towards a more environmentally future.

Kevin is a natural-born leader and a true progressive born from the community-organizing tradition. I hope you understand how special he is and I hope you'll help us get him elected by donating at the link above. A recent wonderful interview in Indian Country Today shows exactly why he's the best candidate for the job:

Killer was rather modest when asked by Indian Country Today if he was the best candidate for the job, saying that there were many people out there who were qualified to run. Killer said that if he won the nomination, he would take the concerns of the other candidates with him.

''I think that it's come to a point in our history and as a rural community that we need to start voicing our concerns better for everybody. We need to start getting out there and really making sure those needs of our community are met.''

Kevin is running alongside Democrat Ed Iron Cloud III against Republicans Mark DeVries (incumbent, anti-choice, one of 8 Members of the House to vote against a minimum-wage increase in 2007) and Dawn M. Rasmussen (owner, Fresh Beads) to fill 2 seats from District 27. Let's help him win this one.