The American Indian College Fund provides vital information to our students and others in our communities to help them navigate the voter registration and voting process, because American Indians and Alaska Natives are impacted more heavily by federal laws and regulations than any other group in America due to our political status.
It wasn’t until 1924 that American Indians were recognized in the United States as citizens through the Indian Citizenship Act, signed by President Calvin Coolidge, giving them the right to vote. However, states actively discriminated against Native people at the polls until the early 1960s.
Efforts to disenfranchise voters have popped up again in the past ten years. The SAVE America Act is another effort to disenfranchise Native and other vulnerable voters, including married women who changed their names, people of color, and senior citizens, by requiring in-person voter registration with passports or birth certificates (with Iess than half of Americans even have a passport and many more having to travel to access or replace a birth certificate). According to research conducted by the Brennan Center, these voter registration restrictions would impact more than 20 million Americans and could potentially disenfranchise them.
The U.S. Census data shows American Indian and Alaska Natives have the highest rates of poverty in the country. Passports and international travel are prohibitively expensive, making this form of identification a poll tax. In addition, many Native citizens are born at home in their remote, rural reservation communities. The impact to travel to obtain a birth certificate is disproportionately punitive to Native and all rural people.
PLEASE ACT TODAY
- Call your elected senators at their Congressional Offices and ask for their Legislative Director. To find your representative and senators, use the USA Gov tool.
- Use this script for each call:
Hello, my name is (blank). My zip code is (tell them your zip code). I am calling to urge my senator to oppose the House-passed SAVE America Act, which would enact unnecessary barriers to voter registration and would disenfranchise countless voters, Including American Indian and Alaska Natives, women, senior citizens, and low-income citizens. This bill is designed to block voters from access to a fundamental right in our democracy WITHOUT evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Thank you for your time!
IF LEAVING VOICEMAIL: Please leave your full street address to ensure your call is tallied.
