Native American Voting Rights Act of 2019

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 739 To protect the voting rights of Native American and Alaska Native voters. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 12, 2019 Mr. UDALL (for himself, Mr. BOOKER, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Ms. HARRIS, Mr. HEINRICH, Ms. HIRONO, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. SCHATZ, Mr. SCHUMER, Ms. SMITH, Mr. TESTER, and Ms. WARREN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To protect the voting rights of Native American and Alaska Native voters. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Native American Vot- 4 ing Rights Act of 2019’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 6 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 7 (1) The Constitution explicitly and implicitly 8 grants Congress broad general powers to legislate on 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 739 IS issues relating to Indian Tribes, powers consistently 1 described as plenary and exclusive. These powers 2 arise from the grant of authority in the Indian Com- 3 merce Clause and through legislative matters arising 4 under the Treaty Clause. 5 (2) The Federal Government is responsible for 6 upholding the obligations that the Federal Govern- 7 ment has agreed to through treaties, legislation, and 8 executive orders, referred to as the Federal trust re- 9 sponsibility toward Indian Tribes and their mem- 10 bers. 11 (3) The Supreme Court has repeatedly relied on 12 the nature of this ‘‘government to government’’ rela- 13 tionship between the United States and sovereign 14 Indian Tribes for congressional authority to enact 15 ‘‘legislation that singles out Indians for particular 16 and special treatment.’’ Morton v. Mancari, 417 17 U.S. 535, 554–555 (1974). 18 (4) Legislation removing barriers to Native 19 American voting is vital for the fulfillment of 20 Congress’s ‘‘unique obligation’’ toward Indians, par- 21 ticularly ensuring that Native American voters are 22 fully included as ‘‘qualified members of the modern 23 body politic.’’ Board of County Comm’rs v. Seber, 24 318 U.S. 705, 715 (1943). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 739 IS (5) Under the Elections Clause of article I, sec- 1 tion 4 of the Constitution, Congress has additional 2 power to regulate any election conducted at least in 3 part to select Members of Congress. Taken together, 4 the Indian Commerce Clause and the Election 5 Clause give Congress broad authority to enact legis- 6 lation to safeguard the voting rights of Native Amer- 7 ican voters. 8 (6) Despite Congress’s decision to grant Native 9 Americans Federal citizenship, and with it the pro- 10 tections of the Fifteenth Amendment, with passage 11 of the Act of June 2, 1924 (Public Law 68–233; 43 12 Stat. 253) (commonly known as the ‘‘Indian Citizen- 13 ship Act of 1924’’), States continued to deploy dis- 14 tinct methods for disenfranchising Indians by enact- 15 ing statutes to exclude from voter rolls Indians liv- 16 ing on reservations, requiring that Indians first ter- 17 minate their relationship with their Indian Tribe, re- 18 stricting the right to vote on account of a Tribal 19 member’s ‘‘guardianship’’ status, and imposing lit- 20 eracy tests. 21 (7) Barriers to voter access for Native Ameri- 22 cans persist today, and such barriers range from ob- 23 structing voter access, to vote dilution and inten- 24 tional malapportionment of electoral districts. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 739 IS (8) The Native American Voting Rights Coali- 1 tion’s recent 9 field hearings in Indian Country and 2 4-State survey of voter discrimination revealed a 3 number of additional obstacles that Native Ameri- 4 cans must overcome in some States, including— 5 (A) a lack of accessible registration and 6 polling sites, either due to conditions such as 7 geography, lack of paved roads, the absence of 8 reliable and affordable broadband connectivity, 9 and restrictions on the time and place that peo- 10 ple can register and vote, and the manner in 11 which people can register and vote, including 12 unequal opportunities for absentee, early, mail- 13 in, and in-person voting; 14 (B) nontraditional addresses for residents 15 on Indian reservations, which make voter reg- 16 istration, acquisition of mail-in ballots, and se- 17 curing required identification difficult, if not 18 impossible; 19 (C) inadequate language assistance for 20 Tribal members, including lack of outreach and 21 publicity, the failure to provide complete, accu- 22 rate, and uniform translations of all voting ma- 23 terials in the relevant Native language, and an 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 739 IS insufficient number of trained bilingual poll 1 workers; and 2 (D) voter identification laws that discrimi- 3 nate against Native Americans. 4 (9) The Department of Justice and courts have 5 also recognized that some jurisdictions have been 6 unresponsive to reasonable requests from federally 7 recognized Indian Tribes for more accessible voter 8 registration sites and in-person voting locations. 9 (10) According to the National Congress of 10 American Indians, there is a wide gap between the 11 voter registration and turnout rates of eligible Amer- 12 ican Indians and Alaska Natives, and the voter reg- 13 istration and turnout rates of non-Hispanic white 14 and other racial and ethnic groups. 15 (11) Despite these obstacles, the Native Amer- 16 ican vote continues to play a significant role in na- 17 tional, State, and local elections. 18 (12) In Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and 19 South Dakota, Native Americans comprise approxi- 20 mately 10 percent or more of the voting population. 21 (13) The Native American vote also holds great 22 potential, with over 1,000,000 voters who are eligible 23 to vote, but are not registered to vote. 24 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 739 IS (1) to fulfill the Federal Government’s trust re- 1 sponsibility to protect and promote Native Ameri- 2 cans’ exercise of their constitutionally guaranteed 3 right to vote, including the right to register to vote 4 and the ability to access all mechanisms for voting; 5 (2) to establish preclearance procedures for a 6 specific subset of State actions that have been used 7 to restrict access to the polls on Indian lands; 8 (3) to expand voter registration under the Na- 9 tional Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 U.S.C. 10 20506 et seq.) to cover all Federal facilities, at the 11 request of the Indian Tribe; 12 (4) to afford equal treatment to forms of identi- 13 fication unique to Indian Tribes and their members; 14 (5) to clarify the obligations of States and polit- 15 ical subdivisions regarding the provision of trans- 16 lated voting materials for American Indians and 17 Alaska Natives under section 203 of the Voting 18 Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10503); 19 (6) to provide Tribal leaders with a direct path- 20 way to request Federal election observers, and to 21 allow public access to the reports of those election 22 observers; and 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •S 739 IS (7) to direct the Department of Justice to con- 1 sult on an annual basis with Indian Tribes on issues 2 related to voting. 3 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 4 In this Act: 5 (1) INDIAN.—The term ‘‘Indian’’ has the mean- 6 ing given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self- 7 Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 8 U.S.C. 5304). 9 (2) INDIAN LANDS.—The term ‘‘Indian lands’’ 10 includes— 11 (A) any Indian country of an Indian Tribe, 12 as defined under section 1151 of title 18, 13 United States Code; 14 (B) any land in Alaska owned, pursuant to 15 the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 16 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), by an Indian Tribe that 17 is a Native village (as defined in section 3 of 18 that Act (43 U.S.C. 1602)) or by a Village Cor- 19 poration that is associated with an Indian Tribe 20 (as defined in section 3 of that Act (43 U.S.C. 21 1602)); 22 (C) any land on which the seat of the Trib- 23 al Government is located; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •S 739 IS (D) any land that is part or all of a Tribal 1 designated statistical area associated with an 2 Indian Tribe, or is part or all of an Alaska Na- 3 tive village statistical area associated with an 4 Indian Tribe, as defined by the Census Bureau 5 for the purposes of the most recent decennial 6 census. 7 (3) INDIAN TRIBE.—The term ‘‘Indian Tribe’’ 8 has the meaning given the term ‘‘Indian tribe’’ in 9 section 4 of the Indian Self-Determination and Edu- 10 cation Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 5304). 11 (4) TRIBAL GOVERNMENT.—The term ‘‘Tribal 12 Government’’ means the recognized governing body 13 of an Indian Tribe. 14 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIVE AMERICAN VOTING 15 TASK FORCE GRANT PROGRAM. 16 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Office for Civil Rights at the 17 Office of Justice Programs of the Department of Justice 18 (referred to in this section as the ‘‘Office’’) shall establish 19 and administer, in coordination with the Department of 20 the Interior, a Native American voting task force grant 21 program, through which the Office shall provide financial 22 assistance to eligible applicants to enable those eligible ap- 23 plicants to establish and operate a Native American Vot- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 9 •S 739 IS ing Task Force in each State with a federally recognized 1 Indian Tribe. 2 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Native American 3 voting task force grant program is to— 4 (1) increase voter outreach, education, registra- 5 tion, and turnout in Native American communities; 6 (2) increase access to the ballot for Native 7 American communities, including additional satellite, 8 early voting, and absentee voting locations; 9 (3) streamline and reduce inconsistencies in the 10 voting process for Native Americans; 11 (4) provide, in the community’s dominant lan- 12 guage, educational materials and classes on Indian 13 lands about candidacy filing; 14 (5) train and educate State and local employ- 15 ees, including poll workers, about— 16 (A) the language assistance and voter as- 17 sistance requirements under sections 203 and 18 208 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 19 U.S.C. 10503; 10508); and 20 (B) voter identification laws under section 21 8 of this Act; 22 (6) identify model programs and best practices 23 for providing language assistance to Native Amer- 24 ican communities; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 10 •S 739 IS (7) provide non-partisan poll watchers on elec- 1 tion day in Native American communities; 2 (8) participate in and evaluate future redis- 3 tricting efforts; 4 (9) address issues of internet connectivity as it 5 relates to voter registration and ballot access in Na- 6 tive American communities; and 7 (10) facilitate collaboration between local elec- 8 tion officials, Native American communities, and 9 Tribal elections offices. 10 (c) ELIGIBLE APPLICANT.—The term ‘‘eligible appli- 11 cant’’ means— 12 (1) an Indian Tribe; 13 (2) a Secretary of State of a State, or another 14 official of a State entity responsible for overseeing 15 elections; 16 (3) a nonprofit organization that works, in 17 whole or in part, on voting issues; or 18 (4) a consortium of one or more of the entities 19 described in paragraphs (1) through (3). 20 (d) APPLICATION AND SELECTION PROCESS.— 21 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Office, in coordination 22 with the Department of the Interior and following 23 consultation with Indian Tribes about the implemen- 24 tation of the Native American voting task force 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 11 •S 739 IS grant program, shall establish guidelines for the 1 process by which eligible applicants will submit ap- 2 plications. 3 (2) APPLICATIONS.—Each eligible applicant de- 4 siring a grant under this section shall submit an ap- 5 plication, according to the process established under 6 paragraph (1), and at such time, in such manner, 7 and containing such information as the Attorney 8 General may require. Such application shall in- 9 clude— 10 (A) a certification that the applicant is an 11 eligible applicant; 12 (B) a proposed work plan addressing how 13 the eligible applicant will establish and admin- 14 ister a Native American Voting Task Force 15 that achieves the purposes described in sub- 16 section (b); 17 (C) if the eligible applicant is a consortium 18 as described in subsection (c)(4), a description 19 of the proposed division of responsibilities be- 20 tween the participating entities; and 21 (D) an explanation of the time period that 22 the proposed Native American Voting Task 23 Force will cover, which shall be a time period 24 that is not more than 3 years. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:58 Mar 22, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S739.IS S739 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 12 •S 739 IS (e) USES OF FUNDS.—A grantee receiving funds 1 under this section shall use such funds to carry out one 2 or more of the activities described in subsection (b), 3 through the grantee’s Native American Voting Task 4 Force. 5 (f) RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHER LAWS.—Nothing in 6 this section reduces State or local obligations provided for 7 by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. 10301 et 8 seq.), the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (52 9 U.S.C. 20501 et seq.), the Help America Vote Act of 2002 10 (52 U.S.C. 20901 et seq.), or any other Federal law or 11 regulation related to voting or the electoral process. 12 (g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 13 are authorized to be appropriated [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]