Allie Young

Navajo Nation

November 14, 2020

NPR/Kalyani Saxena

‘Hoping to increase young Native American voter turn-out, Allie Young, 30 year-old member of the Navajo Nation, started “Ride to the Polls”—she led groups of voters, ranging from 18-30, 10-miles on horseback to reach polling stations in Kayenta, AZ.’

How The Navajo Nation Helped Flip Arizona For Democrats

According to Vox, 60% to 90% of the Navajo Nation’s roughly 67,000 eligible voters voted for Biden. [AZ was called for Biden this week.]

Members of the Navajo Nation often face high barriers to voting. Many people are not assigned a physical address and are unable to register to vote. Tara Benally, field director for the Rural Utah Project, described to NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly about how the organization managed to register 4,000 Native American voters in Arizona.

The project worked with Google to provide GPS coordinates in lieu of physical addresses. Organizers also left thousands of Ziploc bags with voter registration forms on the doors of Native American voters to avoid the spread of COVID-19.

Reflecting on the Navajo people’s unprecedented turnout, he said: “I appreciate meeting with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Phoenix. … [We had] a dialogue, and I think those types of events really inspired the Native American voters to come out to the polls and cast their votes for change.”

#NativeAmericanHeritageMonth

Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) said that she would happily take on the role of President-elect Joe Biden’s secretary of the Interior if the job were offered to her, according to HuffPost. “Oh yes, of course.”  @RepDebHaaland

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