Blaine County offers 2-day a week satellite offices to Fort Belknap

The Blaine County commissioners responded Tuesday to a Jan. 5 letter from the head of the Fort Belknap Indian Community Council, proposing opening a satellite voting office prior to the 2016 elections as agreed upon in a legal settlement, but not for as many days as the reservation requested.

Mark Azure, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community, was not available for comment Wednesday. However, he said Tuesday, prior to receiving the letter, that he hoped a solution could be reached.

However, a consultant with an Indian voting rights organization criticized the proposal, saying it was a “two-fifths solution” that denies Native Americans the equal right to vote.

According to the Blaine County commissioners’ letter, which includes eight requirements, the county will move its elections office to a tribal building on the Fort Belknap Agency 10 a.m.to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, and close 1-2 p.m. for lunch, during the 30-day voting period prior to each state and federal election.

The commissioners’ letter also asks for a response from Fort Belknap by Jan. 31, on whether the reservation can provide a secure building to Blaine County free of charge; the building must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and have Internet access; Fort Belknap must designate a tribal contact person; the county will not be liable for any injuries.

It will move an election administration office in Hays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every other Friday during that 30-day early voting period. They say Fort Belknap claims the state has funding for ballot-on-demand machines, the secretary of state’s office has told them this is not true.

In his letter, Azure requested the office be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays from May 9-June 6 and Oct, 10-Nov. 8 in Fort Belknap some days and Hays others. The primary election is June 7 and the general election is Nov. 8.

Frank DePriest, chair of the Blaine County commissioners, said that was not feasible.

“Financially and personnelwise, we couldn’t do it,” he said, adding the two days followed the settlement agreement from the Wandering Medicine lawsuit.

He added there have been estimates of as much as $40,000 to operate a satellite office. These offices would affect 1,487 voters. He said Hays was 70 miles from the county seat of Chinook.

The letter comes from a 2013 lawsuit in which Northern Cheyenne tribal member Mark Wandering Medicine, along with 11 other Indian plaintiffs, sued Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch and county election officials in Big Horn, Blaine and Rosebud counties, claiming they had violated the federal Voting Rights Act, by not allowing equal access by refusing to set up satellite offices on Indian reservations before the November 2012 presidential election.

An out-of-court settlement was reached in June 2014 in which the counties would open satellite offices two days a week.

In their letter, the Blaine County commissioners noted they were still interested in pursuing the voting offices, despite the fact that Fort Belknap relieved the county of its settlement obligations by having someone from an organization Blaine County has had strained relations with deliver the letter.

And, the commissioners’ letter makes several references to violations by Four Directions, a nonprofit Indian voting rights organization. The commissioners note that part of their settlement agreement was that Four Directions be no longer involved.

They ask that the tribe agree in writing to have no more involvement with Four Directions. They said contacts from people in that group relieves the commissioners from the settlement agreement. And they list emails, calls from Four Directions staff.

DePriest did not want to offer details on the commissioners’ feelings toward Four Directions.

“Let’s just say it has not been a good relationship with them,” DePriest said.

Bret Healy, consultant with Four Directions, said the commissioners letter was “riddled with inaccuracies” and said Four Directions was not prohibited from any activities. In 2014, the Fort Belknap tribe authorized Healy to negotiate on their behalf with the state on in-person late registration and in person absentee voting satellite voting offices.

He said the decision of only two days a week is a two-fifths solution, adding Blaine County has a history of denying Indians the right to vote.

“The argument that two-fifths is enough for Indians is ridiculous,” he said, adding the county is nearly 50-50 white and American Indian in population.

Others have entered the debate as well. On Jan. 15,the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the American Civil Liberties Union and Native American Rights Fund sent a letter to the commissioners asking they approve the creation of a full-time satellite voting office on Fort Belknap.

They said by doing so, “residents of the Fort Belknap Indian community would be able to meaningfully access the voting opportunities that at present are conveniently available only to other residents of the county.”