DENVER – Native Vote 2008, under the umbrella of the National Congress of American Indians, announced the details of its campaign during NCAI’s 64th annual convention in November.
”We know how important it is for our communities to turn out and vote,” said Peggy Flanagan, White Earth Ojibwe and field director for the Native Vote 2008 campaign.
”We know the policies and agendas set by the decision-makers all across the country affect us directly as Indian people. And it is really important that we make sure that not only is our voice heard when we contact our elected officials, but they also hear us at the polls,” she said.
Past efforts to get American Indians to vote have been successful in isolated areas of the country; and one of the targeted states, South Dakota, has made some progress. Across the nation, there are 78 American Indian state legislators.
The target states for 2008 are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Washington state and Wisconsin. (The campaign will be a resource to communities across the country, but those are the focus areas.)
The goal of Native Vote 2008 is to have a nationwide coalition that will lead voter education, registration and turnout across the country in as many communities as possible. This will give the campaign a chance to monitor what issues the people in those communities care about.
During the year, at NCAI gatherings and conventions, Native Vote 2008 will meet to troubleshoot and gather information to formulate strategies.
Flanagan said that it was a powerful message that this year’s theme of the NCAI convention was ”From Emerging Voice to Unified Force,” which is what Native Vote will try to accomplish.
”We will hold folks accountable for the decisions that they made and make sure that our voice is heard,” Flanagan said.
An important component of Native Vote 2008 is the voter engagement school. Each year, outside organizations ”parachute into Indian country and tell us how incredibly important it is for us to turn out and vote,” Flanagan said.
”This year will be different. We will have Indian community members talking to other community members and … will make sure we are talking to our neighbors and to our relatives as to the importance of the vote.”
Flanagan admitted that Indian country in the past was very good at registering large numbers of voters, but fell short in getting those voters to the polls. It may be because of a perceived intimidation at the polls, but this campaign, she said, would engage the Department of Justice and lawyers who will help the voter feel more confident.
The schools will hold events that will deal with canvassing, phone banks and messaging to get people to the polls and to build voter files.
Some tribes have merged their enrollment files with voter files to track those who are registered and those who have voted. There is no actual vote count from Indian country in the 2004 elections.
”We know what it takes to get elected,” said John McCoy, Washington state representative and a member of the Tulalip Tribe.
”Although it’s home to the Tulalip Tribe, the tribal vote is less than 1 percent of the entire vote,” he added. ”We need to continue to get our people out to vote.”
Since McCoy’s district is mostly non-Indian, he said his campaign message is that ”our issues are the same,” which he said include taking care of elders, educating young people and providing jobs.
”I go about solving things differently than they do; but at the end of the day, we get there,” he said.
In Washington state, getting the people to the polls is not an issue. The state has implemented mail-in ballots.
The goal is to develop an exact number of American Indian voters who actually vote to show candidates and political parties that the Indian country vote is unified and constitutes a voting bloc.
Flanagan said a Web site will be launched to spread this message across the nation.
”We will ensure that our message is delivered across the country so that people – not just Natives, but non-Natives as well – know that we are together, that we will be voting and that our votes needed to be counted; and that more than ever, Native folks are going to be a force in this country to be recognized and that we need to make sure that our issues are being placed on the agenda,” she said.