The Voting Rights Act in Indian Country

The problems that Indians continue to experience in South Dakota in securing an equal right to vote strongly support the extension of the special provisions of the Voting Rights Act scheduled to expire in 2007.They also demonstrate the ultimate wisdom of Congress in making permanent and nationwide the basic guarantee of equal political participation contained in the act.' L South Dakota's Refusal to Comply with Section 5Ten years after its enactment in 1965, Congress amended the Voting Rights Act to include American Indians, to expand the geographic reach of the special preclearance provisions of Section 5, and to require certain jurisdictions to provide bilingual election materials to language minorities.As a result of the amendments, Shannon and Todd Counties in South Dakota, home to the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations respectively, became subject to preclearance. 2 Further, eight counties in the state, because of their significant Indian populations, were required to conduct bilingual elections -Todd, Shannon, Bennett, Charles Mix, Corson, Lyman, Mellette, and Washabaugh. 3 William Janklow, at that time Attorney General of South Dakota, was outraged over the extension of Section 5 and the bilingual election requirement to his state.In

Geography · Indian country · Political science · Politics · Voting · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law

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