American Indians Could Influence 2008 Presidential Vote

www.newswise.com - 23.05.07

American Indian voters are poised to begin playing a much bigger role in election politics, if past trends are any indication. That’s just one of the conclusions in a new book titled “Native Vote,” co-authored by Daniel McCool, Susan Olson and Jennifer Robinson of the University of Utah.

American Indians were not even considered citizens until they were granted citizenship in 1924. The right to vote came later in most Western states, and as late as the 1950s the state of Utah was trying to prevent Indian people from voting. Today, the situation has changed dramatically. Beginning in the late 1970s, Indians began to take advantage of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and bring litigation to challenge voting discrimination in local and state elections. Many of these suits succeeded through either settlements or trials in reducing barriers to electoral participation. Then, in the 1990s, several Indian organizations made a systematic effort to register American Indians and get them to the polls in ever-increasing numbers.

Artikel lesen