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“The way I see it, it turns all elections into a union card-check election,” Harper said. He is, however, concerned that groups like labor unions might collect unsealed ballots or intimidate voters into voting a certain way. Matthew Harper, a California Republican assemblyman who authored a proposed ban on ballot harvesting that died in committee earlier this year, said he’s not concerned about family members returning absentee ballots. But the debate over such bans has grown heated. Measures like banning “ballot harvesting” are among the many that lawmakers now consider fine-tuning procedures, Underhill said. Montana would become one of 16 states to regulate ballot collecting in some way - from outright bans to defining who can or cannot turn in another person’s ballot, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.Īs more states and counties adopt vote-by-mail systems and absentee voting, there are more ballots outside the control of election officials, said Wendy Underhill, NCSL’s director of elections and redistricting. This practice, however, could end if a legislative referendum on the November ballot passes, making it a crime for groups to collect absentee ballots. Voters across the state, she said, will at times trust others to deliver their ballots, especially voters with disabilities and who live in rural areas. But it’s not just groups like hers that collect ballots. Western Native Voice has collected hundreds of absentee ballots statewide every election year in tribal areas, said Alissa Snow, the group’s field director. “If you’re worried about it, I can take care of that process for them.” “People are focused on keeping their lights on, keeping their heat on, and voting can take up their time,” said LaPlant, an organizer for Western Native Voice, a local nonpartisan social justice group. Each time she registers new voters, she asks whether they will want her to collect their completed ballot and turn it in to their local county clerk and recorder’s office or courthouse.įor many of these would-be voters, simple things such as getting stamps, fixing a flat tire or filling up enough gas to make it across this reservation - which is larger than Delaware - may be difficult, since more than a third of Blackfeet live below the poverty line.

REMOVE NATIVE ACCESS REGISTRATION

Via Pew By: Matt Vasilogambros (Montana) – In the months leading up to this week’s registration deadline, Renee LaPlant has registered voters in the Blackfeet Nation in northwest Montana wherever she can: at grocery stores, public events or even at people’s homes on the Native American reservation.

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