Federal observers found several problems at rural Alaska polling places in the August election that attorneys say could disenfranchise minority voters and constitute violations of the Voting Rights Act.
U.S. Department of Justice observers were sent to several polling locations in the August special U.S. House and primary elections to assess whether the state provided adequate accommodations for Alaska Native voters. The observers were sent as part of a settlement in afiled nearly a decade ago that found that Alaska election officials were violating the federal Voting Rights Act in failing to provide language assistance to Alaska Native voters.
Gail Fenumiai, director of the Alaska Division of Elections, said in an email that the “the division makes every effort to comply with all of the requirements of the stipulated order in the Toyukak case,” including finding and hiring bilingual election workers, training them, and providing translated election materials.
The settlement order was extended following the 2020 election, after observers found the state continued to violate the requirements set out under the agreement. And in August, observers again found what appeared to be evidence that the state was not in compliance.that there was no Yup’ik speaker available to provide language assistance. There, observers asked election officials what they would do if a voter needed language assistance.
The observers reported that the only election materials in Yup’ik at the Dillingham City Hall were “I voted” stickers. Michelle Sparck, director of strategic initiatives Get Out the Native Vote, said bilingual poll workers are “key” to building voter confidence, especially among older and disabled populations. However, many longtime bilingual poll workers are retiring or moving from their communities, making it hard to recruit new bilingual poll workers.
It remains unclear if the observer reports will lead to any enforcement action against the Division of Elections. An attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, which represents the plaintiffs in the case, declined to comment on the observer reports.
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