(Phoenix, AZ, Wednesday, May 6, 2020) – Subject The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in partnership with the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) are highlighting barriers to the ballot that Native Americans face. They are outlining practical steps for how officials can protect their vote in the wake of COVID-19. With many states moving toward voting by mail, the failure to put systems in place could leave many tribal communities behind.

Many Native Americans do not have mail delivery at their homes, most tribal communities lack broadband access and some elder Native American voters are not fluent or literate in English. Any move to a vote-by-mail system in response COVID-19 must provide accommodations for tribal communities in order to protect their ability to vote.

The Arizona governor, secretary of state, and legislature must ensure safe and secure elections this fall, including providing every registered voter with their ballot by mail, while preserving meaningful in-person voting options.

Turn Up Tuesdays, a weekly, national call to action, is dedicated to ensuring that the election process in upcoming primaries is safe and effective, and never again encounters the disarray that voters experienced in Wisconsin’s election on April 7.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 220 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals.

Since 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has provided specialized legal assistance to Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide. NARF has successfully asserted and defended the most important rights of Indians and tribes, in hundreds of major cases, and has achieved significant results in such critical areas as tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, natural resource protection, voting rights, and Indian education.