2014

Minnesota Adds Early Voting on Indian Reservations

The Problem

“If you’re a member of the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northwestern Minnesota, voting early in an election isn’t easy. The closest voting booth is 35 miles away, in Bemidji. You’ve got to have a car, which can be scarce. You’ve got to drive those miles, park, head back. Costs can add up quick, just to submit a ballot.”

ROBBIE FEINBERG, MINNEAPOLIS CITY PAGES, 8.28.14

The Solution

The Four Directions approach shows what happens when you leverage tribal relationships, cooperate with local government, and outline potential risks facing counties that refuse to open satellite voting offices.

Four Directions has longstanding relationships with the Minnesota Ojibwe Nations. Those valuable relationships allowed Four Directions to mediate voting rights discussions between local governments and the Tribes. In Four Directions fashion, we conducted several meetings with county officials to identify their concerns.

The Tribes provided options to take local government’s concerns off the table. And when some counties continued to balk, we encouraged them to consider the litigation risk they faced by mimicking the anti-Indian actions of other failed defendants in South Dakota and Montana.

Every Minnesota County Four Directions approached agreed to open a satellite voting office in Minnesota in 2014.

The Four Directions Approach

Result

Five counties across three Indian reservations offered satellite voting offices for the first time ever, and with Four Directions financial support, the Tribes were able to mount a robust Native vote GOTV operation.

Counties	Location	Tribe	Organizers
Itaska	Ball Club Community Center	Leech Lake	22
Cass	Leech Lake Tribal Office	Leech Lake	22
Beltrami	Red Lake Tribal Office	Red Lake Nation	20
Becker	White Earth Tribal Office	White Earth	16
Mahnomen	Mahnomen	White Earth	16