Red Lake Is County Absentee Voting Site in State Pilot Program

September 18 and 19, 2014 marked the kick-off at Red Lake for Absentee/Early Voting.

A no-excuse absentee-voting office has opened at tribal headquarters at Red Lake. Red Lake members can vote from now until Election Day at the Tribal Archives rather than traveling to the county seat in Bemidji. State Rep Steve Simon, the author of the bill that made early voting possible visited the pilot project on Thursday, September 18, and early voting began the next day Friday September 19 at the archives and library.

Tribal Legal Advisor and PEC co-chair Michelle Pacquin, met earlier with the county to talk about location, staffing and more. Tribal members have been election judges for years and have been hired to staff the voting site.

The Minnesota legislature approved no-excuse absentee and early voting last year. But Red Lake residents would normally have a very long commute, as much as 150 miles round-trip to the Beltrami County seat.

The notion for a satellite office began with a request from the Red Lake's tribal council after learning of the efforts of Four Directions, a voting-rights group, who had been working with other states to make voting access easier for Tribal Nations. Four Directions is a long-time veteran of Native-vote battles. They were surprised and pleased that Minnesota counties were open to the idea. Four Directions has provided a $2,000 check for the office's first-year expenses to help out Beltrami County.

Thursday, September 18, 2014, a visit from the "early voting" bill's author, Steve Simon.

Biinjwebinigedaa" said Rep. Steve Simon, DFL-Hopkins, Thursday afternoon at a meeting of the Red Lake Political Education Committee (PEC) when asked to pronounce the Ojibwe phrase that PEC uses on buttons, yard signs and even a billboard near the Amigo theaters in Bemidji. His pronunciation was surprisingly close for "Let's All Vote" in Ojibwemowin. He was there to help kick-off one of the absentee voting sites his bill made possible.

Simon drafted the "no excuses absentee voting bill," which was passed by the Legislature in 2013. Simon is the DFL endorsed candidate for Minnesota Secretary of State; he is currently the chairman of the Election Committee in the Minnesota House.

DFL State Representative Roger Erickson, who represents Red Lake at the state capitol, joined Tribal Chairman Darrell G. Seki, Sr., Redby Representative Julius "Toady" Thunder, and County Commissioner Tim Sumner attended the PEC meeting to visit with Simon.

Seki asked Simon his positions on Tribal ID's and racial profiling before excusing himself for another meeting.

"The requirements to obtain a tribal ID are high and although some past secretaries of state have not agreed with my position, I believe they should be honored and will be if I am the next Secretary of State," said Simon.

"The Secretary of State does not have a direct role in racial profiling," said Simon, "but it has to be stopped. I've heard stories of racial profiling not only here, but also other places in the state. We have to cut that to zero. There's no place for that in Minnesota."

Friday, September 19, 2014, Red Lake PEC Holds Kick-off for Early Voting at Tribal HQ.

The Red Lake absentee voting center opened officially on Friday, September 19, with a kick-off event at the Red Lake Tribal Council Headquarters. Beginning at 10 a.m., under a tarp set up to fend off the rain, interested voters were given the opportunity to learn more about registering and voting absentee. Then they could go inside and vote in the Tribal Archives and Library. Refreshments, T-shirts, buttons and non-partisan literature were gone quickly.

Two experienced election judges; Karen Graves and Mary Head are at the Archives to oversee the voting. All four precincts/communities on the Reservation: Red Lake, Little Rock, Redby and Ponemah - if wanting to vote early - must cast their votes at the Tribal Headquarters. Votes are accepted during regular business hours five days a week and the Saturday before Election Day until 5 p.m.

You Can Change Your Vote

"Minnesota's absentee program differs than early-voting systems in other states," explained PEC co-chair and Beltrami County Commissioner Tim Sumner, "because the ballots aren't counted until election night, and voters have until seven days before election day to change their mind with a substitute ballot. It will be pretty much like regular voting, minus the long lines."

"New younger members of Red Lake PEC, Alyss Seki and Thomas Barrett, are working on a social media campaign to engage the youth of the Nation," said Paquin. "The committee will soon unveil a television commercial to be aired on cable TV, and will be using Facebook to spread the Biinjwebinigedaa message."

Four Directions

Four Directions, has been working on voting equality for tribal nations. After meeting with the Minnesota secretary of state and county officials about satellite voting offices on reservations, Red Lake Nation along with White Earth and Leech Lake made requests to their respective counties for satellite offices on their reservations.

The Minnesota was a "breath of fresh air" for Four Directions' compared to their experience with South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming. In each of these states, counties dug in, claiming they didn't have office space, funding, or additional personnel needed to run reservation-polling places.

What makes Minnesota stand out from other states Four Directions has worked with was that Minnesota state and county officials maintained communications with the tribes. The result was that Beltrami, Becker, Cass, Itasca and Mahnomen counties voluntarily agreed to place satellite offices at the three reservation's tribal headquarters. This was a great moment for collaboration between tribal, county and state officials.

Visit the Secretary of State's website for more information on Absentee Voting http://www.sos.state.mn.us/index.aspx?page=1787

More information on voting can be found at mnvotes.org or by visiting the PEC's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Lake-Political-Education-Committee/131606580206304