South Dakota Voter-Suppression Scandal Escalates
This article appeared on the Huffington Post in 2013. For more on topics like this, see my book, American Apartheid: The Native American Struggle.... S outh Dakota has devised an ingenious new way to curb minority voting. For decades, suppression here has involved same-old-same-old activities: last-minute location changes for Indian-reservation polling places, asking Native voters for ID that isn’t required, confronting them in precinct parking lots, and tailing them from the polls and recording their license-plate numbers. The state and jurisdictions within it have fought and lost some 20 Native voting-rights lawsuits. Two South Dakota counties were subject to U.S. Department of Justice oversight until June of this year. That’s when the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, saying, “Today, our Nation has changed.” Yes, it has. The VRA decision provided the opening for those who wish to suppress voting by minorities, the p