Fort Belknap wants voting place on reservation

The Blaine County commissioners said Monday that they are working on a response to a letter from the Fort Belknap Indian Community Council about a request made by the tribe to establish two late registration and absentee voting offices on the reservation.

In the letter dated Jan. 5, the council requests that the commissioners “answer definatively yes or no” with an official Blaine County resolution to the council’s request to the county to establish two offices at the Fort Belknap Agency and Hays where people could drop off absentee ballots in person and take advantage of late voter registration opportunities.

The letter also listed 42 proposed times and dates when the stations would be open and requests that the commissioners respond by Jan. 19.

The clerk and recorder's/assessors office would provide services at the satellite stations twice a week, while providing their services the other three days a week at the Blaine County Courthouse in Chinook.

In the letter to the commissioners, the tribal council members said that the Montana Secretary of State’s Office would pay for “ballot on-demand technology” that enable multiple locations in a county to use the state’s voting systems at the same time.

The letter cites Glacier County in 2014 as an example, when the county was able to conduct late voter registration and accept absentee voting while simultaneously offering those same services at the County Courthouse in Cut Bank.

The ability for reservations to request that counties provide such offices was part of a settlement in an October 2012 suit brought by plaintiffs from the Fort Belknap, Crow Agency and Northern Cheyenne Tribes against Blaine, BigHorn and Rosebud counties and Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch in Wandering Medicine vs. McCulloch.

In the suit, plaintiffs argued that having to travel long distances from the rural reservations was discrimination against their right to vote. A U.S District Court in Montana ruled in the plaintiff's favor.

Under the terms of the settlement, Blaine, Bighorn and Rosebud counties must open an “alternate election administrative office” on the Fort Belknap Agency, Crow Agency and Lame Deer reservation Wednesdays and Thursdays during the 30 days before a state and federal primary or general election if requested by the reservation.

The terms of the agreement say that should the reservation request such an office, the tribe must select a facility that is accessible for handicapped voters and have a secure lockable door.

The agreement stipulates that on days when the alternate election site is open, election services will not be provided at the county courthouse.

In October, the secretary of state’s office issued a directive that all Montana counties that include an Indian reservation work with tribal officials to set up an alternate location if such an office is requested, and if after conducting an analysis consistent with the voting rights act an office would be necessary to ensure the voting rights of tribal members.

Susan Armstrong, the Hill County clerk and recorder, said her office has reached out to the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, which is mostly located in Hill County, but has not received a request for a satellite station.

In Chouteau County, which includes a small portion of the reservatinon, Choteau County Clerk and Recorder Lana Clawson was not available to respond by printing deadline.