Navajo Utah Commission joins fight against redistrict plans in San Juan County
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WINDOW ROCK
The Navajo Utah Commission is joining as plaintiffs in a suit against San Juan County (Utah), while also recommending and supporting the adoption of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission’s plan to redistrict the San Juan County School Board.
This is according to Leonard Gorman, executive director for the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission, and Lauren Bernally, a policy analyst, who provided this update to commissioners Frank Bradley III, Jennifer Denetdale, Valerie Kelly, and Justice F. Tsosie last week on Jan 8.
“The school board plan is unequal,” Gorman told the commissioners about one of three related lawsuits the Navajo Nation has against San Juan County for alleged voter rights discrimination.
Gorman added that San Juan County’s 2012 redistricting plan does not provide equal protection for Navajo voters – violating the Equal Protection clause of the U.S. Constitution by packing Native Americans into two districts.
There are currently three issues before U.S. district court, all having to do with suppressing the rights of Navajo voters. Districting of both the county commission and school board were challenged by the Navajo Nation, along with the practice of mail-in ballots, which the Nation alleges violates the rights of Navajo speakers who do not speak English well.
“There is a deliberate effort by the county to suppress Navajo voting strength,” Gorman said.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act, Section 2, mandates that minorities be afforded the opportunity to maintain and build upon their voting strengths by avoiding “packing, cracking, and splitting minority voting strengths.”
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